Sunshine Week annually marks efforts to promote government transparency and accountability, largely centered on the use of the nearly six-decade old Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). It’s unfortunate and alarming when governmental bodies refuse to release requested information, particularly where the request involves governmental activities that potentially threaten the constitutional rights and protections afforded citizens. It’s exactly that scenario that has forced the Cato Institute to initiate a FOIA lawsuit against the federal Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB).
Created in 2004 in response to a specific 9/11 Commission recommendation, the PCLOB bills itself as “an independent agency within the Executive Branch” with the mission of ensuring that “the federal government’s efforts to prevent terrorism are balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties.” Since January 2014, the PCLOB has released seven major public reports, including a few on key provisions of the PATRIOT Act and on surveillance legislation made necessary by the exposure of the unconstitutional NSA STELLAR WIND program. But in May 2019, the PCLOB refused a Cato FOIA request that it make public a versions of any Executive Order 12333 reports.
Specifically, Cato sought the following:
- Any Board reports issued on federal department and agency activities conducted pursuant to Executive Order 12333, as amended; and
- Any correspondence in any form to or from the Board regarding alleged or actual violations of laws, regulations, or executive orders by any federal department or agency under the purview of the Board.
- Any correspondence in any form to or from the Board regarding refusals by any federal department or agency to provide information requested by the Board pursuant to its statutory oversight mission.