Why Can't A D.C. Blogger Get Public Records?
October 20, 2008: Journalism is a craft, one that anyone is free to exercise. But journalism is an unusual craft, in that its purpose and activities are specifically protected by the Constitution.
So when government agencies, businesses and courts get into the question of just who qualifies to be a journalist, things get murky very quickly. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which operates Metro, has informed the excellent Greater Greater Washington blog that it is not part of the news media and is therefore not eligible to make public records requests and get a fee waiver, as reporters from real journalism outlets do. Read the full column here.
Judge orders IRS to turn over data
June 17, 2008: A federal judge has found the Internal Revenue Service in defiance of a 2006 court order telling it to turn over tax data to a researcher in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case that stretches back more than 30 years.
Researcher Susan Long has fought the IRS since she won an FOIA lawsuit against the agency while a graduate student at the University of Washington in 1976. At that time, a federal judge ordered the IRS to make certain tax-data tables available to Long.
But the IRS still has not complied, and the agency petitioned the court to have the 1976 order changed so it would not have to turn over some of the information. Read the full story here.
White House wins round in e-mail fight
June 16, 2008: A federal court ruled today that the White House’s Office of Administration (OA) is not a federal agency and therefore does not have to release thousands of pages of documents that detail the White House’s e-mail archive practices. Those practices are the subject of ongoing litigation and a congressional investigation.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the White House in May 2007 after the organization was unsatisfied with the administration’s response to two Freedom of Information Act requests for information from the White House’s investigation into potential loss of records concerning e-mails. Read the full story here.
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