Public Enforcement of the Freedom of Information Act

Abstract

The Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (FOIA) has transformed the process by which Executive agencies release information. Private groups and individuals have secured disclosure of countless materials that might otherwise have remained secret: from the Food and Drug Administration, for example, a list of prescription drugs which the agency had yet to approve but which remained on the market; from the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, records on fallout and other harmful effects from atom bomb testing in the 1950's and 1960's; from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sensitive documents concerning the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and the assassination of President Kennedy. Instances such as these attest to the effectiveness of the Act in promoting the release of information.