Too Much Freedom of Information?

Can the people have too much freedom of information? They can, claimed the Lake Travis, Texas school board, when one party filed more than 2,200 public records requests, including 329 in less than one school year. In fact, reports the Daily Texan Online, the school board sued the requestors, claiming that so many records request from one source, on a single subject, represented harassment of its staff. According to the school board, responding to the records requests and 56 related complaints cost them over $600,000 in staff time and the copying of 100,626 pages of documents.

The record requestors, the parents of a disabled student, sought information concerning the school district's policies on special education.

Texas' open-records laws, which closely track the federal Freedom of Information Act, allow taxpayers nearly unlimited rights to demand certain information from public agencies.

"The statute was not intended to be used as a weapon to intentionally divert the resources of a governmental entity and to torment the entity's staff members," stated the lawsuit. To which the parents' lawyer and open government expert responded, "Every request has sought information about the expenditure of public funds and the activities of public employees."

Resolution? The school board's claim was denied by a district judge, who ruled that the state's freedom of information law placed no limit how much information the public could request. As an upshot of the case, the Texas legislature is now considering a bill that would allow public agencies to charge larger fees for larger freedom of information requests.

Also See:
The Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
How to Request Information under the FOIA
CIA Named Freedom of Information Loser of Year
Jefferson "Muzzle" Awards for Government Secrecy (Civil Liberties)