Reducing Secrecy

Excessive secrecy has long been a problem in the fields of national and homeland security because it limits information sharing and leaves us less safe as a nation. Both the 9/11 Commission and the congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11 recommended reforms to reduce unnecessary secrets. OpenTheGovernment.org works with our partners, the Administration, and Congress to put policies in place that both protect constitutional rights and ensure national security by better protecting real secrets and improving information sharing.

Public Has Little Direct Access to Revisions Made to Supreme Court Decisions

What is the law of the land? It’s harder for the public to find out than it should be. OpenTheGovernment.org and its partners have pushed hard against secret interpretations of the law, calling for Office of Legal Counsel memos, significant FISA court opinions, and more to be made available to the public. An upcoming Harvard Law Review article by Richard J. Lazarus shows that the Supreme Court plays its own role in obscuring the law from the public, detailing how many Supreme Court opinions have been edited and altered after they were issued, largely outside public view.

06/12/2014

FOUO and FOIA: Two Letters (Should) Make All the Difference

In 2010 transparency advocates welcomed an important new Executive Order that promised to phase out the use of confusing stamps like For Official Use Only (FOUO) and make sure that such markings were not used by agencies to deny the public access to information. However, as Patrice McDermott testified before a House subcommittee this week, intransigence and resistance from some agencies has drawn out the process so that it will be 2018, 2019 and beyond before agencies stop using these stamps. And, as we learned from a story posted by Jason Leopold on the Guardian earlier this week, the public is still not seeing the benefits that should have begun almost immediately. What should the government do to make sure agencies are not using the delay in implementation to keep information from the public?

06/02/2014

Groups Support Schiff-Jones Drone Transparency Amendment

Today the House Rules Committee will decide which proposed amendments to the National Intelligence Authorization Act will be considered on the House floor. OpenTheGovernment.org and 18 other human rights, civil liberties and pro-transparency groups have written a letter to Congress in support of a bipartisan amendment by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) requiring annual reports on the number of militants and civilians killed in drone strikes.

05/29/2014

House Passes Hollowed-Out Version of USA FREEDOM Act

Last week, OpenTheGovernment.org and thirteen other organizations wrote to the House leadership and asked them to restore the government transparency provisions of the original USA FREEDOM Act in order to “to verify that the NSA actually ends bulk collection instead of finding new loopholes to exploit.” Instead, House leadership engaged in closed-door negotiations with the intelligence community, and introduced new loopholes into the bill’s priv

05/22/2014

The Barron Nomination and the Second Circuit Drone Case

The Obama Administration has not yet announced whether it will appeal a recent Second Circuit order to disclose an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on the legal justification for the killing of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki.

05/20/2014

Groups Call on Holder to Follow Court Order, be Open about Targeted Killing Program

Thirty organizations representing a broad range of interests have joined to urge Attorney General Holder to decline to appeal a recent federal court ruling that would provide the public with critical information about the legal analysis underpinning the targeted killing program.

05/13/2014

Senators and OpenTheGovernment.org Call for Greater Disclosure of OLC Drone Memos

David Barron, the author of a July 16, 2010 Office of Legal Counsel opinion on the legal basis for targeted killing of a United States citizen, has been nominated for a judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

05/08/2014

Court Rules for Disclosure on Targeted Killing Program

On April 21, in New York Times Co. v. United States, the Second Circuit ordered the Executive Branch to make public crucial information about the targeted killing program. OpenTheGovernment.org had signed an amicus brief spearheaded by the Electronic Information Privacy Center (EPIC) arguing for this outcome.

The court ordered:

04/29/2014

Twenty Open Government Groups Ask House Intelligence and Armed Service Committees to Support Targeted Killing Transparency

In an open letter to the House Armed Services Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, OpenTheGovernment.Org and nineteen other pro-transparency organizations asked Congress to support H.R. 4372, the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act.

04/16/2014

Our Focus Issues

Reducing Secrecy