Abolish FOIA

FOIA has no teeth and bureaucrats abuse its exemptions. Just redact and release every federal workers' emails instead.

By C.J. Ciaramella, Reason, Dec. 2024

Over the past decade I've submitted hundreds of records requests to federal agencies through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). I've written extensively about the law, taught college students how to file requests, and evangelized the importance of having a statutory right to inspect public records.

I love FOIA. And I hate it. The federal FOIA law is broken and should be replaced with something better.

FOIA requests can take years to fulfill, unless you can afford to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit. Agency FOIA officers routinely abuse exemptions to hide records. The process is difficult even for experienced reporters to use for newsgathering.

Read more here.