Date: January 7, 2005 Creator: Relyea, Harold C. Description:
The Constitution of the United States makes no specific
allowance for any one of the co-equal branches to have access to
information held by the others and contains no provision
expressly establishing a procedure for, or a right of, public
access to government information. Nonetheless, Congress has
legislated various public access laws. These include two records
access statutes — the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552)
and the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) — and two meetings access
statutes — the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.)
and the Government in the Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. 552b).
Moreover, due to the American separation of powers model of
government, interbranch conflicts over the accessibility of
information are neither unexpected nor necessarily destructive.
The federal courts, historically, have been reluctant to review
and resolve “political questions” involving information disputes
between Congress and the executive branc