In case you didn’t know it, today is "Sunshine Sunday," the first day of a designated week in which newspapers nationwide are focusing on the public’s right to get access to information that the government would prefer to keep private.
The battle for open government is one that has been fought since the dawning of the republic. After all, it’s the nature of power that causes people in government to value secrecy. It plays out on the national scene, of course, as many have discovered since Sept. 11, 2001, when America came under attack.
The challenge since then has been to retain our civil liberties and our openness while still allowing our leadership to protect the people. Since that dark day on Sept. 11, the federal government and its Justice Department have tightened access to all kinds of information — including some that had nothing to do with the attacks.
Of course, since then an entire new federal department has been created, the Office of Homeland Security. And with it — various new regulations and procedures that essentially keep public information private.
There is legal standing for those who want information. For the federal government, it’s known as the Freedom of Information Act, first created by an act of Congress in 1966. Over the years, the act has been amended and interpreted a number of different ways — with some significant loosening after the Watergate era, when then-President Richard Nixon went to great lengths to hide what the White House and the federal government were up to. Cont.
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