Deeplinks Blog posts about Transparency
2015 was a busy year for transparency at EFF. We are currently litigating 10 different public records cases—the highest number of transparency cases EFF has had pending at one time in our 25 year history. The majority of the cases are in federal courts (in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.), although we have two cases pending in California state courts.
Here's a brief, year-end rundown of each case, including what we’re after, who we sued, and the status of the case.
FEDERAL FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT LAWSUITS
When it comes to net neutrality, 2015 started off with a blast. In February the FCC reclassified retail broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service, and issued strong new net neutrality rules while forbearing from almost all the other Title II regulations. In other words, Team Internet started the year off with a huge victory (with a few caveats, which we’ll return to at the end).
The FBI recently opened beta testing of eFOIA, a new online system for filing and tracking requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). On first glance, the project seems like a noble effort to streamline transparency in an agency that is notoriously slow and resistant to releasing public information.
But there’s one feature that we would like to see treated as a bug and excised from the new system: mandatory submission of government-issued identification.
The mayor of Sacramento, former basketball star Kevin Johnson, is currently suing the city’s alt weekly to stop reporters from obtaining emails that may, or may not, reveal improprieties in his office. The case represents an intersection of two key issues for EFF: transparency and freedom of the press. The mayor’s actions are harmful to both.
The Sacramento News & Review (SN&R) hasn’t done anything wrong—it simply asked for documents, which the city attorney agreed SN&R could have under the California Public Records Act (CPRA). But now it’s facing mounting legal bills as Johnson has taken the newspaper to court to prevent the emails from seeing the light of day.
As SN&R’s attorney—Thomas Burke of Davis Wright Tremaine—writes in its latest filing:
In light of this year's 40th anniversary of the Church Committee—legendary for exposing illegal mass domestic government surveillance during the 1960s and 1970s—the Wayne State University School of Law brought former Church Committee members together in Washington, D.C. to discuss how Congress can effectively oversee classified programs. The all-day event saw numerous experts and two key former Church Committee staffers—Fritz Swartz and Loch Johnson—unanimously call on Congress to reassert its oversight authority over intelligence programs.
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