CREW will appeal Judge's decision that White House Office of Administration is not subject to FOIA
Yesterday, a Federal District Court Judge ruled "that the Office of Administration (OA) is not an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)." CREW will appeal that decision.
Today's Washington Post included the reactions to the decision from the Bush administration and CREW:
The White House has been criticized by congressional Democrats, historians and watchdog groups over alleged sloppy retention of e-mails between 2001 and 2005, a period that included the Iraq war.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the White House "welcomed" the decision. CREW's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said in a statement that "we are disappointed in the ruling and believe the judge reached the wrong legal conclusion."
Anne Weismann, chief counsel for CREW, said the group will appeal the decision. She said she is worried that without prompt judicial action, the records will not become public "for many years" after President Bush leaves office.
In another lawsuit, CREW and another group, the National Security Archive, have asked a federal judge to order the Bush administration to take steps to preserve and retain the e-mails in question.
Syndicate this content
The Public's Business
When elected representatives fail to disclose how they are conducting the public's business, we need to fix the law or enforce the existing ones. Keep up the good work.
Maybe the feds need an open information law similar to that of California. Here's the preamble to California’s Ralph M. Brown Act.
"The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created."