FOIA Groups Support EPIC in Case Against NSA
Several open government organizations, including Public Citizen, the Sunlight Foundation, the Project on Government Oversight, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the Center for Effective Government and Openthegovernment.org have filed an amicus brief supporting EPIC in EPIC v. NSA. EPIC is seeking to obtain a Presidential Directive on cyber security that was widely circulated to federal agencies and senior policy advisors. EPIC submitted a Freedom of Information Act Request to the NSA for NSPD-54 and several related documents. After the agency refused to disclose the Directive, EPIC sued the NSA under the Freedom of Information Act. The NSA then disclosed several documents but argued it could withhold NSPD-54 under a narrow legal exemption. Suprisingly, a federal court ruled sue sponte that NSPD-54 was not an "agency record" and simply dismissed the case. The FOIA groups argued that the judge's decision was contrary to FOIA law because NSPD-54 is an agency record and also because courts cannot dismiss such cases particularly when the agency itself thought it was subject to the law. For more information see: EPIC v. NSA.
April 8, 2014| Share:
