How Some Recent FOIA News Could Help—and Limit—Access to Government Records

If nothing worth having comes easy, then freedom of information must be worth a lot. A recent FOIA reform promises to improve access to public records, and a federal appeals court decision this month made clear that agencies cannot shield their records from disclosure by storing them in a private email account—each a sign of progress. But other recent developments point toward the enduring challenge of empowering “citizens to know what their Government is up to,” as the Supreme Court once said.

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