The Failure of the Freedom of Information Act: Addressing the Need for Statutory Change
Open Access
- Author:
- Blevins, Kathryn Michelle
- Graduate Program:
- Mass Communications
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- August 14, 2013
- Committee Members:
- Martin Halstuk, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
John Philip Christman, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Matthew Jackson, Committee Member
James Ford Risley, Committee Member - Keywords:
- FOIA
Freedom of Information Act
FOI
freedom of information
right to know
FOIA exemption
government transparency
records - Abstract:
- The Freedom of Information Act, passed in 1966, created the first enforceable right of access to federal agency records. This right challenged prevailing standards of bureaucratic secrecy and established that individuals have a legal right to government transparency. In the nearly fifty years since the FOIA was passed, the ability of the statute to provide the public with access to agency records has decreased considerably. Despite strong evidence that Congress intended for the FOIA to establish a level of government transparency, the federal courts, particularly the Supreme Court, have contravened the letter and spirit of the law. This research addresses four questions. First, what role does government transparency play in fostering and maintaining democratic principles in a free and open society? Second, what is the legislative intent of the FOIA? In order to address how the FOIA is an inadequate route for transparency, this dissertation establishes what parameters Congress planned for the statute. The next step is to examine how the federal agencies and the Supreme Court define the FOIA’s parameters, which leads to the third question. What is the trend of Supreme Court rulings on FOIA cases involving agency decisions to withhold requested records? Finally, the FOIA has been amended several times since 1966 in an attempt to address loopholes in the statute’s original language or to nullify anti-disclosure Court opinions. Have the amendments been effective in achieving their objectives? Decades of executive, legislative, and judicial abuse make clear that the FOIA is no longer an adequate avenue for access to federal agency records. This dissertation presents evidence that Congress intended for the FOIA to provide consistent and reliable access to government information. The federal agencies and Supreme Court have actively countered this effort at government transparency. The federal agencies continue to buck disclosure requirements, using the FOIA’s exemptions to withhold records that should otherwise be released. The Supreme Court publishes judicial opinions that contravene the FOIA’s purpose while expanding protections for these FOIA exemptions. Although Congress passed several FOIA amendments in response to these actions, the amendments have not successfully addressed the problems at the heart of the FOIA. The end conclusion of this dissertation is that the FOIA, in its present form, is irrevocably broken.