From ACLU:
A few days ago, we highlighted the drastic privacy implications of new guidelines issued to govern data-mining by the National Counterterrorism Center (“NCTC”). Yesterday, we testified to Congress about the problems with the guidelines, and we filed three Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests to learn more about how the guidelines will affect the privacy of millions of Americans.
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Read More… from Step one in data-mining America: Build a big database
From Washington Post:
WASHINGTON — A judge is backing the State Department’s refusal to provide 23 classified embassy cables even though they had already been released by the website WikiLeaks and published by various news organizations.
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Read More… from Judge backs State Department in WikiLeaks FOIA
A few state FOIA and local open government news items selected from many of interest that we might or might not have drawn attention to earlier in the week:
Florida appellate court: Student complaints are public record
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From Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council:
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From OMB Watch:
A recent court decision may make it more difficult and more time-consuming for people to receive materials from federal agencies when filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. It would allow agencies to delay FOIA requests more easily, which could hamstring those who rely on the law, including the open government community, journalists, and other advocacy groups. OMB Watch today joined an amicus brief urging the court to reverse the ruling.
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From NJ.com:
NORTH BERGEN, NJ. — A Hudson County Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit [“for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted"] in which a critic of Mayor Nicholas Sacco and his administration argued that a $42,000-plus estimated bill to obtain copies of public documents was “excessive.”
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Read More… from Lawsuit challenging estimated bill for public records copies dismissed
From JDSupra:
Attorneys representing a group of U.S. citizens suffering from severe birth defects they believe were caused by the drug thalidomide have filed a lawsuit in federal court to compel the FDA to release records they believe will show the drug was widely distributed in the United States.
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