White House Wins Court Fight on Email Disclosure
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124274567167334975.html>
MAY 19, 2009
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the office that has records about
millions of possibly missing emails from the Bush White House doesn't have
to make them public.
The appeals court in Washington ruled that the White House Office of
Administration isn't an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act,
allowing the White House to keep secret documents about an email system that
has been plagued with problems.
--snip--
"We conclude that the Office of Administration is not [subject to FOIA
requests] because it performs only operational and administrative tasks in
support of the president and his staff and therefore, under our precedent,
lacks substantial independent authority," the three-judge panel said in its
opinion.
--snip--
The groups expressed disappointment that Mr. Obama's Justice Department
asked the suit be dismissed after Mr. Obama promised greater transparency in
government.
Anne Weismann, CREW's chief counsel, said the group is disappointed in the
ruling but it is negotiating with Obama's White House to get access to the
Office of Administration's documents anyway.
"Every president except for George W. Bush has treated OA as an agency
subject to the FOIA and we are counting on President Obama to do the same,"
she said in a statement.
----
Mark Perkins MLIS, MCLIP
www.markperkins.info
0 comments:
Post a Comment