National Freedom of Information Coalition

White Papers and Reports

States failing FOI responsiveness — Freedom of information laws are only as good as the response mechanisms built into the laws themselves. After all, if citizens can't take action to enforce their right of access shy of filing suit, what good are FOI laws? When it comes to responsiveness measures, not much good at all. The Better Government Associationand the National Freedom of Information Coalition have united to review the recourse afforded citizens in the public records laws of all 50 states, and the conclusions make for some relentlessly depressing reading.

Mediation Without Litigation — 40 years after the passage of the FOIA, access advocates are turning to state models for examples of how access to information disputes can be resolved short of litigation. While litigation is still the ultimate resolution even in the states, a number of states have both formal and informal processes that provide opportunities for dispute resolution without going to court. This report will survey the approaches taken by those states with both specific and informal dispute resolution as a way of better understanding what currently exists and what models might be adopted at both the federal level and for those states that currently do not have a mediation system of their own.

Open letter to Senator Harry Reid — Senator Reid:
We, the members of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, a national organization comprised of state freedom of information groups from across the country, were dismayed to learn recently that in your first hours as Majority Leader, you plan to usher in a new era of leadership in Washington – with a closed-door meeting. After all of the missteps of the past few years punctuated by an administration seemingly obsessed with secrecy, have we learned nothing?

Federal Controls on State Information Disclosure — Never before has the clash between an individual's privacy and the public's right to access been more apparent, or more misunderstood. The National Freedom of Information Coalition highlights that debate with the release of a new report examining public access to state records. The report, "Federal Controls on State Information Disclosure: FERPA, HIPAA and DPPA," by attorney and FOI expert Harry Hammitt, will be released to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government at its Nov. 17 conference.

Privatization: Its Impact on Public Record Access — With the publication of Privatization: Its Impact on Public Record Access by Harry Hammitt, the National Freedom of Information Coalition is honored to announce the resumption of the FOI Reports, the last of which was written by Penny Loeb in June 1985. We are proud to add Harry’s discerning analysis to the proud tradition of FOI publications. In this, the first of a series of working papers initiated by the NFOIC, Harry examines how state legislatures and the courts have dealt with keeping public information accessible as privatization has threatened to change the freedom of information landscape.