The legacy of the Clinton administration on Freedom of Information matters

FOI UPDATE 2000: The Clinton years

By Kate Martin

03.15.00

The legacy of the Clinton administration on Freedom of Information matters, in particular on declassification of national security information, is lengthy and mixed.

Some of the administration's actions favoring access:

Support for openness
The Oct. 4, 1993, announcement by President Clinton embraced the Freedom of Information Act and promised to enhance its effectiveness. Simultaneously Attorney General Reno rescinded the Reagan administration's 1981 Justice Department guidelines for defending FOI lawsuits and announced that the department would apply a presumption of disclosure.

Executive order on declassification
In April 1995, President Clinton issued a new Executive Order setting standards for classification of national security information. The last such order, issued by President Reagan in 1982, had been a disaster for the public's right to know. The Clinton order contained some important reforms, long advocated by the openness community. Some of those reforms survive five years later.

Snip...

Some of the Clinton administration actions detrimental to access:

NSC records
In response to a lawsuit seeking access to the electronic records at the White House, the administration reversed a 25-year-old policy and announced that National Security Council records are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, a position ultimately sustained by the courts.

Government secrecy
The administration killed Sen. Moynihan's government secrecy reform legislation that included a requirement that the public interest balancing test be considered by judges when reviewing agency decisions to withhold classified information sought under the Freedom of Information Act.

The administration's objection to strengthening judicial oversight of refusals to declassify information under the Freedom of Information Act was not limited to attempting to preserve the status quo. In the Weatherhead case, the administration sought to eviscerate any semblance of judicial review, even suggesting that the Pentagon Papers case was wrongly decided. In that instance, the administration made the extraordinary and extreme argument that any rule that results in the disclosure of classified documents under the FOI over the objection of the government is unconstitutional. Two days after the FOI plaintiff and the openness community filed briefs, the government suddenly released the document and mooted the case.

link