Freedom of information in the United States

Freedom of information in the United States relates to the public's ability to access government records, meetings, and other information. In the United States, freedom of information legislation exists at all levels of government: federal level, state level, and local level.

Federal level

Since the founding of the United States, the public's right to know the affairs of their government has been foundational to democracy. James Madison wrote during the United States Constitutional Convention, "The right of freely examining public characters and measures and free communication, is the only effective guardian of every other right."

Several federal laws have strengthened the public's ability to access public records.

Federal legislation

The most important was the Freedom of Information Act, signed into law on July 4, 1966, by President Lyndon Johnson.

Administrative Procedure Act PL 79-404; 1946
Freedom of Information Act PL 85-619; 1966
Federal Advisory Committee Act PL 92-463; 1972
Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act PL 93-344; 1974
Government in the Sunshine Act PL 94-409; 1976
Inspector General Act PL 95-452; 1978
Ethics in Government Act PL 95-521; 1978
Presidential Records Act PL 95-591; 1978
Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments PL 104-231; 1996

Proposed legislation

FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014 (H.R. 1211; 113th Congress) - would amend the FOIA to speed up the response time and ease of making a "FOIA request", among other changes.

Miscellaneous Authoritative Federal Sources

Executive Order 13233, drafted by Alberto R. Gonzales and issued by George W. Bush on November 1, 2001, is used to limit the FOIA by restricting access to the records of former presidents.
Executive Order 13392: Improving Agency Disclosure of Information.

U.S. Attorney General Memoranda

History

The Holder Memo is part of series of policy memos on how federal agencies should apply FOIA exemptions. Beginning in 1977 with Attorney General Griffin Bell, and continued by Attorney General William French Smith in 1981 and Attorney General Janet Reno in 1993, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced how the executive branch should approach FOIA, its application, and DOJ's defense of agency's actions. In other words, DOJ's position on when they would defend in a FOIA suit has seesawed for about the last three decades.

Reno Memo

The Reno Memo established a "presumption" in favor of disclosure by providing that "it shall be the policy of the Department of Justice to defend the assertion of a FOIA exemption only in those cases where the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would be harmful to an interest protected by that exemption". It encouraged all government agencies to review FOIA requests in a manner most favorable to openness and to release information, even though it might fall within one of the nine exemption categories, if no "foreseeable harm" would result from the disclosure. The goal was to achieve the "maximum responsible disclosure".

Ashcroft Memo

On October 12, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a policy memorandum on FOIA to all federal executive agencies. The AG declared the Department of Justice (DOJ) would defend agencies' decisions to withhold documents from a FOIA requester under one of the statute's exemptions "unless they lack a sound legal basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect other important records".

The Ashcroft Memorandum reversed the Reno standard. Agencies were told that in making discretionary FOIA decisions they should carefully consider the fundamental values behind the exemptions—national security, privacy, government's interests, etc.—and to lean in their favor whenever possible. The Ashcroft Memo with its "sound legal basis" standard encouraged (or at least seemed to support) greater use of FOIA exemptions by federal agency personnel.

AG Holder Memo

The Ashcroft Memo was rescinded by Attorney General Eric Holder on March 14, 2009. The AG Holder Memo appears to have reinstated the Reno Memo standard and extends the policy. The policy of the executive branch is to be open, responsive, transparent, and accountable. The current memo encourages the maximum disclosure possible in discretionary exemptions and to, whenever possible, reasonably segregate exempt information and release the rest.

State legislation

All fifty U.S. states and the District of Columbia also have freedom of information laws that govern the public's access to government records at state and local levels. These laws go by many different names including Sunshine Laws, Public Records Laws, Open Records Laws, etc. Additionally, Open Meeting Laws govern the public's access to meetings of public officials or appointed boards.

All Freedom of Information style laws supports the ideal that in a democracy, people have the right to know the business of their government. However, the laws vary in scope and strength among jurisdictions. For example, Florida's Sunshine Law creates both a statutory and constitutional right to access whereas many states only provide the statutory right. Additionally, while a state may have strong legislation the state's compliance with its own laws may negatively impact the public's ability to access records.

Freedom of Information laws by state and territory

State	Freedom of Information Law	Code Section	First Enacted	Who May Request Records
Alabama	Alabama Public Records Law	Al. Code §§ 36-12-40; 36-12-41	1923	Any citizen
Alaska	Alaska Public Records Act	A.S. §§ 40.25.110 to 40.25.125; 40.25.151	1900	Any person
American Samoa	American Samoa Public Records Act	A.S.C.A. §§ 2.0101 et seq.	1984	Any person
Arizona	Arizona Public Records Law	A.R.S. §§ 39–121.01 to 39–121.03	1901	Any person
Arkansas	Arkansas Freedom of Information Act	Ark. Code Ann. §§ 25-19-101 to 25-19-111	1967	Citizens of the state/commonwealth
California	California Public Records Act	Gov't Code §§ 7920.000 to 7931.000	1968	Any person
Colorado	Colorado Open Records Act	C.R.S. §§ 24-72-200.1 to 24-72-205.5	1969	Any person
Connecticut	Connecticut Freedom of Information Act	Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 14 §§ 1–200 to 1-242	1975	Any person
Delaware	Delaware Freedom of Information Act	Tit. 29, §§ 10001 to 10007; 10112	1977	Citizens of the state/commonwealth
District of Columbia	Freedom of Information Act	DC Official Code §§ 2–531 to 2-540	1974	Any person
Florida	Florida Sunshine Law	Fla. Stat. §§ 119.01 to 119.19	1967	Any person
Georgia	Georgia Open Records Act	O.C.G.A. §§ 50-18-70 to 50-18-103	1959	Citizens of the state/commonwealth
Guam	Guam Sunshine Reform Act of 1999	5 GCA §§ 10101 to 10125	1999	Any person
Hawaii	Uniform Information Practices Act (Modified)	Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 92F-1 to 92F-43	1975	Any person
Idaho	Idaho Public Records Act	Idaho Code §§ 74–101 to 74-126	1990	Any person
Illinois	Illinois Freedom of Information Act	ILCS 5 §§ 140/1 to 140/11.6	1984	Any person
Indiana	Access to Public Records Act	IN Code §§ 5-14-3-1 to 5-14-3-10	1983	Any person
Iowa	Iowa Open Records Law	Iowa Code §§ 22.1 to 22.16	1967	Any person
Kansas	Kansas Open Records Act	KSA §§ 45–215 to 45-524	1984	Any person
Kentucky	Kentucky Open Records Act	Kentucky Revised Statute Chapter §§ 61.870 to 61.884	1976	From Kentucky: "an individual residing in Kentucky, a domestic business with a location in Kentucky (or an out-of-state business registered with the Secretary of State), a person who works in Kentucky, a person or business that owns real property within Kentucky, a person or business authorized to act on behalf of a Kentucky resident, or a news-gathering organization"; inmates have some restrictions; non-Kentucky people may request records, but their requests can be denied
Louisiana	Louisiana Public Records Law	La.R.S. §§ 44:31 to 44:41	1940	Any person 18 or older
Maine	Maine Freedom of Access Act	Tit. 1, §§ 400 to 434	1959	Any person
Maryland	Maryland Public Information Act	Gen. Provis. §§ 4–101 to 4-601	1970	Any person
Massachusetts	Massachusetts Public Records Law	Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 66, §§ 1 to 21	1897	Any person
Michigan	Michigan Freedom of Information Act	Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. §§ 15.231 to 15.246	1977	Any person
Minnesota	Minnesota Data Practices Act	Minn. Statutes §§ 13.01 to 13.99 Ch. 13 Appendix	1974	Any person
Mississippi	Mississippi Public Records Act	Miss. Code Ann. §§ 25-61-1 to 25-61-19	1983	Any person
Missouri	Missouri Public Records Act	Mo. Code §§ 109.180; 610.010 to 610.225	1961	Citizens of the state/commonwealth
Montana	Montana Public Records Act	Montana Code §§ 2-6-101 to 2-6-1020	1895	Any person
Nebraska	Nebraska Public Records Law	Nebraska Statutes §§ 84–712 to 84-712.09	1866	Any person
Nevada	Nevada Open Records Act	N.R.S. §§ 239.010-239.340	1911	Any person
New Hampshire	Right to Know Law	R.S.A. Ch. 91-A:1 to 91-A:10	1967	Any citizen
New Jersey	New Jersey Open Public Records Act	N.J.S.A. §§ 47:1A-1 to 47:1A-13	2002	Citizens of the state/commonwealth
New Mexico	Inspection of Public Records Act	NMSA §§ 14-2-1 to 14-2-12	1993	Any person
New York	New York Freedom of Information Law	Pub. Off. §§ 84 to 90	1974	Any person
North Carolina	North Carolina Public Records Law	NCGS Chapter 132–1 to 132-11	1995	Any person
North Dakota	Open Records Statute	NDCC §§ 44-04-18 to 44-04-32	1957	Any person
Northern Mariana Islands	Open Government Act of 1992	1 CMC §§ 9901 to 9910	1992	Any person
Ohio	Ohio Open Records Law	Ohio Rev. Code §§ 149.43 to 149.45; 2743.75	1963	Any person
Oklahoma	Oklahoma Open Records Act	Title 51 Oklahoma Statutes §§ 24A.1 to 24A.32	1999	Any person
Oregon	Oregon Public Records Law	O.R.S. §§ 192.311 to 192.513	1973	Any person
Pennsylvania	Right-to-Know Law	65 Pennsylvania Statute §§ 67.101 to 67.1310	1957	Any legal resident of the United States
Puerto Rico	Puerto Rico Transparency and Access to Public Information Act	Law No. 141-2019	2019	Any person
Rhode Island	Rhode Island Access to Public Records Act	P.L. §§ 38-2-1 to 38-2-16	1979	Any person
South Carolina	South Carolina Freedom of Information Act	S.C. Code Ann. §§ 30-4-10 to 30-4-165	1974	Any person
South Dakota	South Dakota Sunshine Law	SDCL Chapter 1-27-1 to 1-27-48	2009	Any person
Tennessee	Tennessee Open Records Act	Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 10-7-503 to 10-7-508	1957	Citizens of the state/commonwealth
Texas	Texas Public Information Act	Gov't §§ 552.001 to 552.376	1973	Any person
Utah	Government Records Access and Management Act	Utah Code Title 63G-2-101 to 63G-2-804	1991	Any person
Vermont	Vermont Open Records Law	Vermont Statute Tit. 1, §§ 315 to 320	1976	Any person
Virginia	Virginia Freedom of Information Act	Code of Virginia §§ 2.2-3700 to 2.2-3715	1968	Citizens of the state/commonwealth
Virgin Islands	Virgin Islands Sunshine Act	V.I. Code tit. 3, §§ 881–884	1976	Any person
Washington	Washington Public Records Act	RCW §§ 42.56.001 to 42.56.904	1972	Any person
West Virginia	West Virginia Freedom of Information Act	W.Va. Code §§ 29B-1-1 to 29B-1-7	1977	Any person
Wisconsin	Wisconsin Open Records Law	Wisconsin Statute §§ 19.21 to 19.39	1981	Any person
Wyoming	Wyoming Sunshine Law	Wyo. Stat. §§ 16-4-201 to 16-4-205	1983	Any person

Originally Gov't Code §§ 6250 to 6276.48 until January 1, 2023.