The Freedom of Information Act

Did you know that you and any citizen of the United States can sue the US State Dept. to obtain records they have. As a matter-of-fact, Journalists do it all the time. Our state dept. likes to withhold documents that they don’t want out. So the journalists go after the state Dept. in court.

Considering that it is our right, they usually settle out of court by releasing the information. Knowing this, there are exemptions to the rule. It helps to know what you can and can’t have as far as official documents. In this article, we will discuss what you as a citizen can, and cannot legally obtain from the government.

What Are the Exemptions?

When going for legal documents, you first need to know if the documents are legal to release to you. There are seven major exemptions that will stop the lawsuit dead in its tracks.

• Classified information for national defense or foreign policy

• Internal personnel rules and practices

• Information that is exempt under other laws

• Trade secrets and confidential business information

• Inter-agency or intra-agency memoranda or letters that are protected by legal privileges

• Personnel and medical files

• Law enforcement records or information

Classified Information

The first exemption is classified information. When the FBI or CIA first writes a document, it is usually classified information for national security reasons. This is information that would put the US national security at risk if it fell into the wrong hands. With that being said, this is off limits to the public

Internal Personnel Rules and Practices

This is information that falls under general rules that exempt the document from being released. Usually, this is a document that the dept. has deemed Personnel only. That means only the dept can actually see this type of document

.

Information that is exempt under other laws

Sometimes a document is forbidden to be released because it violates another law. For example, if document “A” has information that protected by law “B”, it cannot be released because law “B” would be violated if document “A” were released.

Trade secrets and confidential business information

Trade secrets are secret devices or techniques used by a company in manufacturing its products. It is against the law to reveal these types of documents. If a person releases this information or confidential business information, such as, personal emails, or telephone numbers, whoever released the information can be sued and face prison time

.

Protected by legal privileges

This is usually between a lawyer and their client. Only these two parties have access to this type of information.

Personnel and medical files

Live attorney-client privilege, a doctor has to have the patients signed permission to release their personal of medical records. Additionally, the government cannot release a citizen’s personal information either.

Law enforcement records or information

When a case is pending, the only ones allowed to see the evidence are the law enforcement agency and the district attorney handling the case. This is the case until there is an indictment and the discovery pack is released.

Any other information not listed above is free for citizens to obtain. That is what makes our country great. It protects the citizens from being in the dark about anything the government is doing. This is something to keep in mind when going after government information