Category «Freedom of Information»

Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research, Public Health and the Rule of Law – Part 9

This article is the ninth in a series by Sabrina I. Pacifici focused on the Trump administration’s unrelenting policy of attacking science, healthcare, public health, and the rule of law. The cornerstone of this series are topical highlights on hundreds of anti-government actions conducted by this administration. The greater goal of the series is to identify the consequences of these actions to shatter the health and welfare of our nation – terms broadly used to encompass our nation’s democracy. Together these articles form an actionable pathfinder to identify what must be restored or recreated and relaunched, when we commence the hard work of rebuilding our government.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Health, Healthcare, KM, Leadership, Legal Research, Medical Research, United States Law

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research, Public Health, and the Rule of Law – Part 6

As we approach January 20, 2026, the one year mark of the second Trump administration, Americans are witnessing the exercise of vast, often illegal and unconstrained presidential powers, unprecedented in our history. The impact of these powers, within our government, the private sector, and around the globe, continue to resonate. Part 6 of this series gives special attention to how operationalizing the full scope of actions outlined in the “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” has impacted the lives of ordinary Americans, regardless of where they live, with which party they may be affiliated, their age, ethnicity or gender. Consistent with the previous five parts of Sabrina I. Pacifici’s series, this article examines only one month, December 2025, of the Trump administration’s war every aspect of our democracy.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Education, Energy, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Health, Healthcare, Legal Research, United States Law

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research, Public Health, and the Rule of Law – Part 4

This the fourth in a series by Sabrina I. Pacifici on the Trump administration’s relentless attacks against science, medicine and public health, government sponsored data collection and reporting, climate science, and censorship of government documents and federally funded academic research and scholarship. Our country continues to face daily attacks on our civil liberties, access to accurate, actionable and science based medical and health information, broadening censorship of government information, and the dismantling of our non partisan federal workforce. These attacks have bypassed laws and regulations that exist to ensure equality, justice, the rule of law and the safeguarding of civil liberties. These dangerous cracks in the pillars of US democracy have shattered long agreed upon norms that have until January 20, 2025 defined how the institutions and procedures of our three co-equal branches of government, the legislative, executive, and judicial branches sustain democracy. In the month of October alone, our government and the economy, public health and safety, our legal system, science and research, food and nutrition programs, public health and critical vaccine programs, have sustained irrevocable blows by the Trump administration.

Subjects: Archives, Big Data, Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Healthcare, Leadership, Legal Research, Medical Research

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research and Public Health

Sabrina I. Pacifici’s overview of selected articles highlights the devastating impact of the Trump administration’s dismantling of agencies across the federal government, with a focus on cancelling critical scientific and health related research grants, as reported in July, 2025. The total cancellation of funds is escalating as grant suspensions are ongoing, but it is in the billions of dollars. Unilateral, sweeping and rapid actions are targeting a wide range of projects, programs, education and funding for research on critical health issues including: Alzheimers’, cancer, the climate crisis, weather and forecasting, vaccines, HIV, infectious diseases, food and drug safety, fossil fuels, air and water pollution.

Subjects: Climate Change, Education, Energy, Federal Legislative Research, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Healthcare, KM

The U.S. as an Authoritarian State: Danger to the Global Rule of Law

Donald J. Trump’s second term as President of the United States has stunned the world. As Catherine Morris documents, commentators increasingly say the U.S. has now crossed the Rubicon into authoritarian territory. Morris addresses the impact on the legal system, legal education, and lawyers, in the United States and in Canada.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Human Rights, Legal Research, United States Law

“A republic, if you can keep it” – but can the US keep it? How Trump is dismantling democracy

Christina Pagel has mapped out 69 actions that President Trump has taken in the last twelve weeks to undermine democracy, undermine the rule of law, attack enemies, suppress dissent and control information.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Legal Research, United States Law

The Heritage Foundation’s Reckless Misuse of FOIA to Target Individuals

In this Opinion, researched and authored by Michael Ravnitzky, he says that the Heritage Foundation’s current public records campaign is an abuse of the FOIA process. In recent years, the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project and its publishing spinoff, The Daily Signal, have filed an unprecedented and overwhelming number of FOIA requests – 65,000 according to Reuters and more than 50,000 according to ProPublica. According to recent articles, the goal of the requests is to scrutinize government employees’ communications, to identify (for example, individuals using keywords or phrases such as “climate change”, “reduction in force” or DEI) and potentially remove civil servants perceived as obstructive to Trump’s agenda, in preparation for a potential Trump administration.

Subjects: Digital Archives, E-Discovery, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Legal Research, United States Law

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 17, 2024

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Six highlights from this week: How to stop the government from deleting itself; Six ransomware gangs behind over 50% of 2024 attacks; Thousands of Corporate Secrets Were Left Exposed. This Guy Found Them All; The California Journalism Preservation Act takes a step forward; Microsoft Tweaks Fine Print To Warn Everyone Not To Take Its AI Seriously; Study finds 94% of business spreadsheets have critical errors.

Subjects: AI, Business Research, Competitive Intelligence, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines

Unlocking History: How a Small Group of Researchers Dominates the Declassification Appeals Process

Attorney and FOIA expert Michael Ravnitzky shines a spotlight on people, process and procedural challenges with his illuminating article. A small core group of researchers and historians have filed most of the declassification appeals being reviewed by the responsible appellate body. While these individuals are working diligently to facilitate public access to long-classified records that shed light on our nation’s history, their efforts also highlight weaknesses in the declassification framework.

Subjects: E-Government, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Legal Research

The Federal Reserve Banks’ New Transparency and Accountability Policy

Michael Ravnitzky is an attorney and former journalist who has more than 25 years of experience in using the Freedom of Information Act and state public records laws. On December 21, 2023, the Federal Reserve Banks each announced the adoption of a uniform Transparency and Accountability Policy (TAP). The Banks have begun responding to public records requests under that policy. Following implementation of the new policy, Ravnitzky initiated several records requests directed at individual Fed Banks, utilizing the provisions of the TAP. His extensively documented evaluation of the new process is that TAP is a good start but it has some shortcomings.

Subjects: Congress, Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Legal Research, Legislative