Updated FOIA Guide

The U.S. Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA (pronounced foy-a), is a key piece of open government. The Department of Justice has updated their FOIA Guide, which details how this Justice Department interprets the law, and gives guidance to agency FOIA officers. [Note: there is no open records law that pertains to the U.S. Congress, although several have been introduced in this Congress.]

If you want to make a FOIA request, you should go to the web site of the agency you’re going to request from, and follow their guidelines.

Alabama has its own open records law [included under Title 36, Public Officers and Employees], and the state’s Department of Archives & History has published a leaflet for state employees entitled “Providing Access to Government Records - keep in mind that it was last updated in July of 2002.

And occasionally people out there remember that public universities are state agencies - and therefore fall under that state’s open records law.  Recently an Arkansas Razorback football fan filed an open records request for the cell phone records of Houston Nutt, head football coach.  Because Coach Nutt’s phone was purchased and paid for by the University, the records were turned over to the fan - who analyzed them & made portions available online.