On National FOIA Day, let’s celebrate a law ‘vital to the functioning of a democratic society’

For many of us, March 16 is a special day. Happy birthday to James Madison, and happy Freedom of Information Day to everyone else.

National Freedom of Information Day celebrates the ability of people to look at most government records and is observed on the birthday of the man who wrote the First Amendment.

The U.S. Justice Department says the basic function of the federal Freedom of Information Act “is to ensure informed citizens, vital to the functioning of a democratic society.”

While most people think this is just a law for reporters, it’s not. It is for anyone who wants to check their government’s actions.

A bit of background on the federal FOIA: The law was passed in 1966, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson and went into effect in 1967. The original law said government documents (at that time only paper documents) are open for public inspection.

Thirty years later, President Bill Clinton signed the Electronic FOIA, which covers electronic documents (texts, emails and other e-documents) as open for public inspection. As with paper documents, there are exceptions to what can be released. For example, most classified documents, personnel documents and ongoing criminal investigation files are not open for public viewing.

Under the law, anyone has the right to request access to documents and information, but they must make the request in writing and many agencies have forms the requestor must complete. For complete information about how to use FOIA on the federal level, the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press has created a Wiki page at https://foia.wiki/wiki/Main_Page.