When was the Freedom of Information Act first put into effect?
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
The Freedom of Information Act was initially introduced as the bill in the 89th Congress. When the two-page bill was signed into law it became , but had an effective date of one year after the date of enactment, or July 4, 1967. The law set up the structure of FOIA as we know it today.
Freedom of information laws by country
In Zimbabwe, the Access to Information and Privacy Act (AIPPA) was signed by their President Robert Mugabe in February 2002.(Unless stated otherwise, information is current as of July 2008).
International:
USA Freedom Act
The USA Freedom Act (, ) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had expired the day before. The act imposes some new limits on the bulk collection of telecommunication metadata on U.S. citizens by American intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency. It also restores authorization for roving wiretaps and tracking lone wolf terrorists. The title of the act originally was a ten-letter backronym (USA FREEDOM) that stood for Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-collection and Online Monitoring Act.
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 13) was an Act of the Scottish Parliament passed in 2002. It covers public bodies over which the Scottish Parliament has jurisdiction, fulfilling a similar purpose to the UK-level Freedom of Information Act 2000. It, too, came into force at the beginning of 2005.
National security letter
The oldest NSL provisions were created in 1978 as a little-used investigative tool in terrorism and espionage investigations to obtain financial records. Under the Right to Financial Privacy Act (RFPA), part of the Financial Institutions Regulatory and Interest Rate Control Act of 1978, the FBI could obtain the records only if the FBI could first demonstrate the person was a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. Compliance by the recipient of the NSL was voluntary, and states' consumer privacy laws often allowed financial institutions to reject the requests. In 1986, Congress amended RFPA to allow the government to request disclosure of the requested information. In 1986, Congress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), part of the Stored Communications Act), which created provisions similar to the RFPA that allowed the FBI to issue NSLs. Still, neither RFPA or ECPA act included penalties for not complying with the NSL. A 1993 amendment removed the restriction regarding "foreign powers" and allowed the use of NSLs to request information concerning persons who are not the direct subject of the investigation.
Whistleblower protection in the United States
The Freedom of Information Act of 1966 can provide access to information required to pursue a whistleblower action. FOIA provides the public the right to request access to records from any federal agency. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government. Federal agencies are required to disclose any information requested under the FOIA unless it falls under one of nine exemptions which protect interests such as personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement.
Freedom of information laws by country
In Japan, the "Law Concerning Access to Information Held by Administrative Organs" (行政機関の保有する情報の公開に関する法律) was promulgated in 1999. The law was enforced in 2001.
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), , is a federal freedom of information law that requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government upon request. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures, and defines nine exemptions to the statute. President Lyndon B. Johnson, despite his misgivings, signed the Freedom of Information Act into law on July 4, 1966, and it went into effect the following year.
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
Executive Order 13233, drafted by Alberto R. Gonzales and issued by President George W. Bush on November 1, 2001, restricted access to the records of former presidents.
Freedom of information act of 2002 (India)
Freedom of information act 2002 was the precursor to Right to Information Act, 2005 of Parliament of India. The main Weakness of this act was that it did not acknowledge the right to information of the people. Consequently, it provided for appeals only within the government bodies. It barred jurisdiction of the courts and did not ensure any appeal with any independent body.
Campaign for Freedom of Information
In February 1993, another of the Campaign's private members' bills for a full FOI Act, the Right to Know Bill, was introduced by Mark Fisher (politician) MP and debated for a total of 21 hours in the Commons.
Freedom of Information requests to the Climatic Research Unit
The new UK Freedom of Information Act came into effect in 2005, and in February of that year Jones discussed with fellow climate researchers the potential implications of the Act for McIntyre's requests. In 2007 he told colleagues that, having seen what McIntyre's Climate Audit blog was doing, UEA had been turning down FOIA requests associated with the blog. The scientists concerned saw such requests as disrupting the time available for their work, and those making them as nitpicking to suit an agenda rather than trying to advance scientific knowledge. Late in 2008, the university's FOI managers took advice from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on exceptions allowing refusal of requests.
History of the Patriot Act
The first version of the Patriot Act was introduced into the House on October 2, 2001 as the "Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act of 2001", and was later passed by the House as the "Uniting and Strengthening America (USA) Act" (H.R. 2975) on October 12. This was based on the afore-mentioned "Anti-Terrorism Act", but had been changed after negotiations and work between Attorney General Ashcroft, Senators Leahy, Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Bob Graham, Trent Lott (R-MS) and Orrin Hatch. It was introduced into the Senate as the "USA Act of 2001" (S. 1510) by Tom Daschle (D-SD) where Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) proposed a number of amendments, none of which were passed. Feingold amended the provision relating to interception of computer trespasser communications, limited the roving wiretap authority under FISA and modified the provisions relating to access to business records under FISA. The "USA Act" was later vitiated and indefinitely postponed, because the Senate and House bills could not be reconciled in time.
Edward V. Long
Edward Vaughn Long (July 18, 1908November 6, 1972) was a United States Senator from Missouri and a member of the Democratic Party. He served in the United States Senate from 1960 until 1968. One of his most notable accomplishments as a US Senator was the honor and privilege of writing the final draft of the Freedom of Information Act which passed in 1966 after 11 years of research, creation, and fight by the "Father of the Freedom of Information Act", Representative John E. Moss (D) of Sacramento, California.
Freedom of Information Act 1982
Before the FOI act of 1982 the various governments of Australia had no obligation to release information to the public, because the traditional Westminster system of governance is fairly closed to public scrutiny.
Between the 1960s and 1980s a number of enquiries were made, looking into the transparency of the Australian government and public services which led to New Industry Law (NAL) reforms. One of the NAL initiatives was Freedom of Information and is considered a "landmark in the development of Australian democracy".
Official Information Act 1997
The constitutions of 1991 and 1997 had already recognised the right to information. The Official Information Act was passed at the same time as the 1997 Constitution, and was designed to formally define the conditions of access to information. The Act was the culmination of a period of political reform which started in 1992 with the popular protest in Bangkok against the government of General Suchinda Kraprayoon, and was precipitated by Thailand’s economic crisis in 1997.
Open government
The term 'open government' originated in the United States after World War II. Wallace Parks, who served on a subcommittee on Government Information created by the U.S. Congress, introduce the term in his 1957 article “The Open Government Principle: Applying the Right to Know under the Constitution.” After this and after the passing of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1966, federal courts began using the term as a synonym for government transparency.
Freedom of information laws by country
The exemption regarding EU documents was taken out of the Act in 1991. Amendments were also made in 2000; they concerned data on the employees of the Government. In January 2014 new Public Records Act was enforced. The new act was highly debated since it was considered to limit transparency in the Government and legislative proceedings; Denmark received one point less in the category of Political Environment when compared with the Freedom of the Press report of 2015. The new legislation caused demonstrations and protests. It can be regarded as a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. After the Public Records Act of 2013 came into effect, public access to information regarding the Intelligence Services instead of falling under the Public Records Act is now managed by the Act on the Security and Intelligence Service as well as the Act on the Defense Intelligence Service. In addition, the access to legislative process was further restricted. According to the new Act documents in the drafting stage are not to be accessed as well as “other corresponding political activities,” so restriction is not concerning only Bills. In the future, it will not be possible to find the calendars of ministers being published. Nevertheless, the Act was created while keeping in mind the strengthening the project of the Open Government; the list of institutions covered by the Act was extended as well as list of public-private institutions and companies.
United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal
In January 2005 the Freedom of Information Act 2000 came into force, allowing members of the public to request disclosure of information from public bodies. One early request came from the journalist Jon Ungoed-Thomas. Another request came from journalist and freedom of information campaigner Heather Brooke. Both asked for details of the expenses claimed by certain MPs to be released. The requests were subsequently passed over to the Information Commissioner, who joined the journalists' cases together and ordered the release of some information on 15 June 2007. House of Commons authorities objected to this order in June 2007 and MPs had, in May 2007, voted in favour of the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill which sought to exempt MPs from the 2000 act. The House of Commons voted 96 to 25 in favour of the Exemption of the House of Commons amendment but the bill was ultimately withdrawn prior to second reading in the House of Lords because peers were unwilling to sponsor the bill.
Freedom of information in the United States
The Holder Memo is part of series of policy memos on how federal agencies should apply FOIA exemptions. Beginning in 1977 with Attorney General Griffin Bell, and continued by Attorney General William French Smith in 1981 and Attorney General Janet Reno in 1993, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced how the executive branch should approach FOIA, its application, and DOJ's defense of agency's actions. In other words, DOJ's position on when they would defend in a FOIA suit has seesawed for about the last three decades.
Official Information Act 1982
In 1978 the government established the "Committee on Official information" (also known as the "Danks Committee" after its chair) for the purpose of "considering the extent to which official information can be made readily available to the public". As part of this, the committee was to review the application of the Official Secrets Act 1951 and "advance appropriate recommendations on changes in policies and procedures which would contribute to the aim of freedom of information". In 1980 it reported back, recommending the replacement of the Official Secrets Act with a new Official Information Act, based on a principle of openness. In 1981 the committee released a supplementary report with recommendations about the oversight and administration of the Act and the treatment of classified information. In 1982 these ideas were passed into law as the Official Information Act by the National Government. The Prime Minister at the time was Rob Muldoon, who according to Privacy Commissioner, Marie Shroff, was "a strong believer in the battler, the little man, the ordinary citizen and his or her rights".
Freedom of information laws by country
The Dutch act on public access to government information entered into force in 1980 and is updated several times later. Under the act known as the "", or "Wob" for short, any person can demand information (called "wobbing") related to an administrative matter if it is contained in documents held by public authorities or companies carrying out work for a public authority. The request can either be written or oral. The authority has two (on environmental issues) or four weeks to respond. The act also obliges the government to provide information "unsolicited" as it is in the interest of good and democratic governance.
Information Commissioner of Canada
The Commissioner’s work is supported by the Office of the Information Commissioner, which was established in 1983 under the "Access to Information Act"(ATIA) – Canada’s freedom of information legislation. The Office assists individuals and organizations who believe that federal institutions have not respected their rights under the ATIA. More specifically, the Office of the Information Commissioner:The Information Commissioner provides arms-length oversight of the federal government’s access to information practices. He or she encourages and assists federal institutions to adopt approaches to information-sharing that meet the objectives of the ATIA, and advocates for greater access to information in Canada.
Information commissioner
The Office of the Information Commissioner () was set up under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, 1997, which came into effect in April 1998. The Information Commissioner may conduct reviews of the decisions of public bodies in relation to requests for access to information. In Ireland, the Information Commissioner also holds the position of Ombudsman. The first holder of the office was Kevin Murphy. In March 2003, the Government of Ireland nominated Emily O'Reilly to be Information Commissioner (and Ombudsman). In December 2013, Peter Tyndall was appointed as her replacement.
Access to Information Act
By 1982, Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the U.S. (1966), had enacted modern Freedom of information legislation. Canada's "Access to Information Act" came into force in 1983, under the Pierre Trudeau government, permitting Canadians to retrieve information from government files, establishing what information could be accessed, mandating timelines for response. By the standards of that era, it came to be considered a model of good practice, having taken the "implementation" of the law more seriously than other countries. The "Act" created new offices staffed with trained professionals to manage the inflow of requests, and developed formal procedures to encourage prompt processing of requests. Furthermore, the Information Commissioner served as an easily accessible ombudsperson to arbitrate cases of possible maladministration.
Prevention of Terrorism Acts
The first Act was enacted in 1974 following the IRA bombing campaigns of the early 1970s. The Act was introduced by Roy Jenkins, then Home Secretary, as a severe and emergency reaction to the Birmingham pub bombs. The apparent chronology was that there were pub bombings by the IRA in Birmingham on 21 November 1974. 21 people died and 184 were injured. There was a strong desire to respond to what was perceived as "the greatest threat [to the country] since the end of the Second World War." (H.C. Debs. Vol. 882 col. 743 28 November 1974, Mr. Lyons.) The conception of the Bill was announced on 25 November, when the Home Secretary warned that: "The powers... are Draconian. In combination they are unprecedented in peacetime." (Ibid. col. 35 25 November 1974, Mr. Jenkins). Parliament was supportive and had passed the Bill by 29 November, virtually without amendment or dissent. The Bill passed through the Commons on 28 and 29 November and passed through Lords on 29 November. In fact, much of the Bill had been drafted in secrecy during the previous year, as shown in the only full length television commentary on the legislation by Clive Walker.
Privacy policy
In the United States, concern over privacy policy started around the late 1960s and 1970s saw the passage of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Although this act was not designed to be a privacy law, the act gave consumers the opportunity to examine their credit files and correct errors. It also placed restrictions on the use of information in credit records. Several congressional study groups in the late 1960s examined the growing ease with which automated personal information could be gathered and matched with other information. One such group was an advisory committee of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, which in 1973 drafted a code of principles called the Fair Information Practices. The work of the advisory committee led to the Privacy Act in 1974. The United States signed the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines in 1980.
Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Ontario)
The resulting Act came into effect on January 1, 1988.
1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry
During the last year of the Callaghan government it proposed reinventing the one year Lib-Lab Pact which lapsed in July 1978, to include introducing a Freedom of Information Act, long proposed by the Liberals, although Callaghan himself was opposed to this kind of legislation. When the vote of no confidence came about, Liberal MP Clement Freud, a long-time campaigner for freedom of information, was expected to follow his party and vote with the Opposition. Freud, in Liverpool on the day of the vote, received a phone call from the Prime Minister's Office at 3:00 PM asking for him to miss his train back to London for the 10:00 PM vote of no-confidence. In exchange, a "looser" version of his proposed Freedom of Information Act would be enacted. He declined the offer and voted with his party.
Personally identifiable information
The Privacy Act of 1974 (Pub.L. 93–579, 88 Stat. 1896, enacted December 31, 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a), a United States federal law, establishes a Code of Fair Information Practice that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information about individuals that is maintained in systems of records by federal agencies.
History of the Patriot Act
After the USA PATRIOT Act was passed it remained controversial, and began to be questioned by some members of Congress. On June 13, 2002 the House Committee on the Judiciary wrote a letter to Attorney General Ashcroft asking 50 questions about the use and effectiveness of the Act. In the letter they stated that "[t]he Committee is interested in hearing from you [John Ashcroft] and FBI Director Robert F. Mueller concerning the Department of Justice's use of [the Act's new investigative tools to combat new terrorist threats against the United States] and their effectiveness. In light of the broad scope of the Act, we are initially seeking written responses to the following questions, and we plan to schedule a hearing in the near future to allow further public discussion of these and other issues relating to the Department of Justice's activity in investigating terrorists or potential terrorist attacks." Only 28 questions were answered publicly, with 7 answered under separate cover to the Committee. Meanwhile, organisations such as the ACLU, the EFF and EPIC had not stopped opposing the most controversial parts of the Act. Three months after the official response to the Select Committee on the Judiciary, EPIC filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request seeking the information that was not released by the U.S. Department of Justice. While the Department of Justice released a number of records in response to the request, they didn't release all the material, asserting that certain responsive records were exempt from disclosure. In order to gain access to these records, the ACLU and EPIC brought a civil action against the Department of Justice, and on November 26 U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ordered the Department of Justice to complete its processing of the FOI request by January 15, 2003.
Intelligence Services Act 2001
The Intelligence Services Act 2001 (ISA) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia, which made significant changes to the Australian Intelligence Community (AIC). The bill was introduced into Parliament on 27 June 2001 by then Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer. The Act was passed by Parliament on 29 September 2001 and came into effect on 29 October 2001.
Freedom of information laws by country
Sri Lanka's Right to Information Act No 12 of 2016  was certified on 4 August 2016. After much debate and many amendments to the draft Bill, the final Act comprising 44 Sections was certified in early August 2016. The implementation of the Act is expected to take time due to the necessity of establishing cadre positions in government institutions to provide information to the general public. The Act is considered to hold many strengths and positive features that would effectively authorize citizens to be actively involved in the process of governance. Moreover, Article 14A(1) introduced by virtue of 19th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka has paved the way for the recognition of right to information as a fundamental right.
Proposed reforms of mass surveillance by the United States
The USA Freedom Act (, ) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had expired the day before. The act imposes new limits on the bulk collection of telecommunication metadata on U.S. citizens by American intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency. It also restores authorization for roving wiretaps and tracking lone wolf terrorists.
Big data ethics
On the 26th October 2001 the Patriot Act came into force in the USA, in response to the broad concern felt among Americans from the September 11 attacks. Broadly speaking the Patriot Act laid the path for allowing security forces to surveil citizens suspected of involvement with terrorist acts.
Freedom of information laws by country
The Federal Law of Transparency and Access to Public Government Information was unanimously approved by Congress in April 2002 and signed by President Fox in June 2002. It went into effect in June 2003.
Freedom of information laws by country
The Act was enacted in 2008 under President Vazquez's Administration and is mainly implemented by the Judiciary.
Corruption in Canada
Canada's "Access to Information Act" came into force in 1983. However, in recent years the legislation has been severely criticized to be outdated and in-effective. Centre for Law and Democracy ranks Canada 56th out of 95 countries in terms of the strength of the Access to Information legislation. Both Federal and various Provincial and Territorial access to information systems are overburdened, in part, by the refusal of many governments and agencies to informally release various data either as a matter of routine course or upon informal request, instead demanding that written requests be made pursuant to relevant access to information legislation, subsequently triggering a cumbersome and time consuming formal process for frequently trivial and even obviously public information. As of 2015 there are thousands of individuals employed full-time throughout all levels of government and their agencies tasked with processing formal requests for access to information; this represents a cost to the Canadian taxpayer of hundreds of millions of dollars annually and does not include additional expenses including outside legal and other professional opinions, tribunal hearings, motions and appeals in courts, multiple access to information commissions and tribunals across the country, and various other expenses that likely bring the annual cost to the taxpayer into the billions of dollars.
Freedom of information laws by country
In Sweden, the Freedom of the Press Act grants public access to official documents and is included in the Constitution of Sweden. Dating back to 1766, it is the first freedom of information legislation in the modern sense. In modern times the right has become known as the Principle of Public Access (Swedish: "offentlighetsprincipen").
Access to information in South Africa
The Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) was enacted in response to the constitutional mandate, and came into force in large part in March 2001. Its preamble acknowledges the "secretive and unresponsive culture" of the pre-democratic era, and asserts that one object of PAIA is to "foster a culture of transparency and accountability in public and private bodies." In accordance with section 32, the Act provides for access to information held both by public and private entities. Though privacy features in the Act as a ground on which access may be refused, PAIA is "not a typical privacy or data protection statute such as may be found in many other jurisdictions." Its emphasis falls on facilitating access to information rather than protecting privacy.
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
In 2002, Congress passed the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003, . Within this omnibus legislation were amendments to the FOIA (pertaining mainly to intelligence agencies) entitled "Prohibition on Compliance with Requests for Information Submitted by Foreign Governments":
Devant Maharaj
In 1999 Trinidad and Tobago introduced the Freedom of Information Act to open the records of Government to the citizens. Maharaj was a “citizen trailblazer” in pioneering the use of the Freedom of Information Act in requesting information from the State. In several instances State agencies and Government Ministries refused to provide Maharaj the information requested citing various reasons. Maharaj as a result sought Judicial Review on the state’s decision not to provide the information. In all instances Maharaj’s legal challenge was successful. The successful use of the Freedom of Information Act by Maharaj has resulted in several forms of administrative reactions by the State including making the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago exempt from the Freedom of Information Act with retroactive legislation. Maharaj’s attorney in all of his legal challenges was Constitutional Rights attorney at law Anand Ramlogan. In several cases Ramlogan was led by former Attorney General of Guyana Sir Fenton Ramsahoye.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was introduced on May 18, 1977, by Senator Ted Kennedy and was signed into law by President Carter on 25 October 1978. The bill was cosponsored by nine Senators: Birch Bayh, James O. Eastland, Jake Garn, Walter Huddleston, Daniel Inouye, Charles Mathias, John L. McClellan, Gaylord Nelson, and Strom Thurmond.
Right to Information Act, 2005
Right to Information (RTI) is act of the Parliament of India to provide for setting out the practical regime of the right to information for citizens and replaces the erstwhile Freedom of information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen of India may request information from a "public authority" (a body of Government or "instrumentality of State") which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and to proactively certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.
FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), , is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures and grants nine exemptions to the statute. It was originally signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, despite his misgivings, on July 4, 1966, and went into effect the following year.
Right to Information Act, 2005
This law was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 12 October 2005. Every day, over 4800 RTI applications are filed. In the first ten years of the commencement of the act over 17,500,000 applications have been filed.
Freedom of information laws by country
Section 32 of the Constitution of South Africa guarantees "the right of access to any information held by the state; and any information that is held by another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any rights." This right is implemented through the Promotion of Access to Information Act, which was enacted on 2 February 2000. The right of access to "privately" held information is an interesting feature, as most freedom of information laws only cover governmental bodies.
Sensitive Security Information
SSI got its start in the Air Transportation Security Act of 1974 (Pub. L. No. 93-366), which, among other things, authorized the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to prohibit disclosure of information obtained whose disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy; reveal trade secrets or privileged or confidential commercial or financial information obtained from any person; or would reduce the safety of passengers — all notwithstanding the Freedom of Information Act. On June 28, 1976, FAA published a proposal to create Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 191 entitled "Withholding Security Information from Disclosure under the Air Transportation Security Act of 1974." Part 191 created the category of sensitive but unclassified information now known as Sensitive Security Information (SSI), and described the information to be protected from disclosure, including "the security program of any airport; the security program of any air carrier; any device for the detection of any explosive or incendiary device or weapon; and, any contingency security plan."
Protecting Internet Freedom Act
The Protecting Internet Freedom Act was introduced in June 2016 by United States Senator Ted Cruz in order to "prohibit the National Telecommunications and Information Administration from allowing the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions contract to lapse unless specifically authorized to do so by an Act of Congress."
Freedom of information laws by country
In Turkey, the (Bilgi Edinme Hakkı Kanunu) was signed on October 24, 2003 and it came into effect 6 months later on April 24, 2004.
Thirty-year rule
Significant changes were made to the rules as a consequence of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) (which came into full effect on 1 January 2005). FOIA essentially removed the second of the thirty-year rules (the access one), and replaced it with provisions allowing citizens to request a wide range of information before any time limit has expired; and also removed some of the exemptions which had previously applied at the thirty-year point. After thirty years, records are transferred to The National Archives, and are reviewed under FOIA to see if they should be opened. The only rationale for keeping them closed within The National Archives is if a FOIA exemption applies.
Right to Information Act, 2005
The Right to information(RTI Act 2005) was touted as one law which would bring in transparency and eradicate corruption by civil society direct involvement. Failure to implement it in a thoroughly and efficiently has led to rough loss estimate of $245 million yearly as per one estimate.The first RTI application was filed at a police station in Pune by Shahid Raza Burney.
Freedom of Information Act in Pakistan
Pakistan was the first South Asian country to enact a law on freedom of information, when it passed the Freedom of Information (FOI) Ordinance at the Federal level in 1997. This Ordinance was later revoked and a new Freedom of Information Ordinance was issued in 2002, which has a legal status to this day as it was covered under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. In 2004, the Freedom of Information Rules 2004 were enforced by the Federal Government, which described the procedural aspect of the Freedom of Information Ordinance. In 2016, a draft of a new federal Right to Information (RTI) bill was proposed by Pakistan’s federal government in hopes of replacing the Freedom of Information Ordinance of 2002, but the approval of the bill is still pending.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA" , ) is a United States federal law which establishes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers" suspected of espionage or terrorism. The Act created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. It has been repeatedly amended since the September 11 attacks.
Aftermath of the September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks also precipitated a focus on domestic security issues and the creation of a new cabinet-level federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security. The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 was passed soon after the attacks, giving law enforcement agencies sweeping search and surveillance powers over US citizens without a warrant. This led to the creation in 2002 of the Information Awareness Office (IAO), led by John Poindexter. The IAO has initiated a program called Total Information Awareness, amended in May 2003 to Terrorist Information Awareness (TIA), with the aim of developing technology that would enable it to collect and process massive amounts of information about every individual in the United States, and trace patterns of behavior that could help predict terrorist activities. The information the IAO would gather includes Internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver's licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and other available data. Critics of the IAO believe it goes too far in the sacrifice of civil liberties and privacy, putting in place an Orwellian infrastructure prone to abuse. Many major events the United States has hosted since September 11, 2001 have been designated National Special Security Events (NSSE), because of concerns of terrorism. Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia Chief Charles Ramsey made the point clear before the state funeral of former US president Ronald Reagan: "In a post 9/11 world we have to be very concerned about that and aware of the potential for something to happen."
Morris Starsky
In 1975 Starsky became one of the first US citizens to receive federal records under the newly created Freedom of Information Act. He received FBI files that revealed he was the subject of illegal wiretap and surveillance activities, and that the FBI attempted to facilitate his dismissal from ASU by sending an anonymous letter to university officials accusing Starsky of fomenting violence. He was one of the first people targeted by the FBI program known as COINTELPRO, and subsequent litigation later resulted in a significant award of damages paid to the Socialist Workers Party.
John E. Moss
Moss has been noted for his determination in passing the Freedom of Information Act into law. As chairman of the Government Information Subcommittee it took Moss 6 congressional sessions (over 12 years) to get the Freedom of Information Act through Congress successfully. Much of the desire for government transparency stemmed from the Department of Defense and Congressional committees evaluation of the nation's classification system in the late 1950s. They determined that the misuse of government classification of documents was causing insiders to leak documents that were marked "confidential". The Moss Committee took it upon itself to reform confidentiality policy and implement punishments for the overuse of classification by officials and departments. The landmark bill was signed into law by a reluctant Lyndon B. Johnson on July 4, 1966.
Freedom of information laws by country
On the 1st of September 2012, Legal Notice 156 of 2012 brought the Freedom of Information Act (Chapter 496 of the Laws of Malta) fully into force, allowing the public (resident citizens of Malta, the EU and the EEA) to submit requests for documents/information held by the Government. FOI requests are submitted free of charge but processing of documents by public authorities may require the public to pay fees which never exceed Eur 40. When access to documents is refused, the FOIA in Malta provides for a complaint and appeal mechanism that can be ultimately resolved through the Courts of Appeal.
Financial privacy laws in the United States
The Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 (RFPA) was passed in 1978 primarily as a response to the Supreme Court ruling on "United States v. Miller 1976" and to supplement the Bank Secrecy Act. The act was put in place to limit the government's ability to freely access nonpublic financial records. The RFPA defines financial institutions as any institution that engages in activities regarding banking, credit cards, and consumer finance. It also defines financial records as any documentation of a consumer's relationship with a financial institution. The act required that the U.S. government deliver a legal notice to a customer or receive consent from a customer before they can legally access their financial information. Customers must also be informed that they have the ability to challenge the government when the government is actively trying to access their financial information. In the event that the government successfully gains access to a customer's information, the government is not allowed to transfer the information between government agencies without clarifying that the information in question is being used in the name of law enforcement. The customer must be notified immediately if conditions are met and their information is going to be transferred between agencies.
Enforcement Act of 1870
The Enforcement Act of 1869, also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1870 or First Ku Klux Klan Act, or Force Act was a United States federal law written to empower the President with the legal authority to enforce the first section of the Fifteenth Amendment throughout the United States. The act was the first of three Enforcement Acts passed by the United States Congress from 1870 to 1871 during the Reconstruction Era to combat attacks on the suffrage rights of African Americans from state officials or violent groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
Freedom of information laws by country
The current freedom of information legislation was enacted May 19. 2006, and superseded the previous law of 1970 by January 1, 2009. Article 100 of the Constitution gives access to public documents. The basic principle of the law is everyone has the right to access to State and municipal documents and to be present at sittings of courts and elected assemblies.
Freedom of information in the United States
The most important was the Freedom of Information Act, signed into law on July 4, 1966, by President Lyndon Johnson.
National security of the United States
U.S. National Security organization has remained essentially stable since July 26, 1947, when U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947. Together with its 1949 amendment, this act:After 9/11, the passage of the USA Patriot Act provoked debate about the alleged restriction of individual rights and freedoms for the sake of U.S. national security. The easing of warrant requirements for intelligence surveillance, under Title II of the Act, spurred the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. In August 2008, the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR) affirmed the constitutionality of warrantless national security surveillance.
Access to Information Act
A complementary "Privacy Act" also came into force in 1983. The purpose of this "Act" was to extend the present laws of Canada that protect the privacy of individuals with respect to personal information about themselves held by a federal government institution and that provide individuals with a right of access to that information. It is a Crown copyright. This "Act" stipulates that complaints about possible violations of the "Act" may be reported to the Privacy Commissioner.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008
Specifically, the Act:The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit challenging the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 on the day it was enacted. The case was filed on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal, and media organizations whose ability to perform their work—which relies on confidential communications—could be compromised by the new law. The complaint, captioned "Amnesty et al. v McConnell" and filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, argued that the eavesdropping law violated people's rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. The case was dismissed from the district court on the grounds that the plaintiffs could not prove their claims, but was revived in March 2011 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which disagreed. The subsequent citation was "Amnesty v. Blair". On February 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit, deciding that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The FISA resulted from extensive investigations by Senate Committees into the legality of domestic intelligence activities. These investigations were led separately by Sam Ervin and Frank Church in 1978 as a response to President Richard Nixon’s usage of federal resources, including law enforcement agencies, to spy on political and activist groups. The law itself was crafted in large part in closed door meetings between legislators and members of the Justice Department.
The act was created to provide judicial and congressional oversight of the government's covert surveillance activities of foreign entities and individuals in the United States, while maintaining the secrecy needed to protect national security.
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
Between 1995 and 1999, President Clinton issued executive directives (and amendments to the directives) that allowed the release of previously classified national security documents more than 25 years old and of historical interest, as part of the FOIA. This release of information allowed many previously publicly unknown details about the Cold War and other historical events to be discussed openly.
Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014
The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 was introduced into the United States Senate on November 12, 2013 by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D, CA). The bill was referred to the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. It was reported alongside Senate report 113-120. On June 11, 2014, the Senate passed the bill with an amendment by voice vote. The House voted in a voice vote on June 24, 2014 to pass the bill. President Barack Obama signed it into law on July 7, 2014.
Freedom of information laws by country
In Greece, the 1975 Greek Constitution guaranteed the right of access to administrative documents and the right of citizens to obtain information. However it was not until 1986 that the first law was passed to provide for access to information.
Fourth Amendment Protection Act
On June 2, 2015, President Barack Obama signed a revised version of the USA Freedom Act. Under Section 215 the mass collection of phone data was no longer allowed. Phone records could now only be obtained through the Federal Courts. Companies also now had the ability to publicly report the number of records requests they had received, making it even harder for massive amounts of information to be requested. This was the first time such protections were added for citizens since the attacks on September 11, 2001. Many Americans had concerns after Snowden's information leaks, causing data privacy and security concerns to become much larger and widely discussed issues. Still, others in government, such as Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, were pushing for more terrorism protections and would realize that this bill, while losing some ground on their end, was still their best chance, as protections granted from the previous bill had already expired.
Information policy
A persistent debate concerning the government role in information policy is the separation of security and freedom of information. Legislation such as the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USAPATRIOT or USAPA) Act of 2001 is an example of security taking precedence over civil liberties. The USAPA affected several surveillance and privacy laws to include: 
The USAPA was passed in October 2001, not long after 9/11 and without much contention from congress. Civil liberties advocates argue that the changes made to the standing surveillance laws were done in an abrupt manner and without consideration to basic rights as outlined in the US constitution, specifically fourth amendment rights which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.
Privacy Act (Canada)
The Privacy Act () is Canadian federal legislation that came into effect on July 1, 1983. The act sets out rules for how institutions of the federal government must deal with personal information of individuals. Some salient provisions of the legislation are as follows:An individual who has been refused access to personal information may ultimately apply to the Federal Court for a review of the matter, pursuant to section 41 of the Act. The Court may order the head of the government institution to disclose the information to the individual (sections 48 and 49). Decisions of the Federal Court on such matters may be appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal, and, if leave is granted, further appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Some important court decision concerning the Privacy Act are:
Freedom of information laws by country
In Azerbaijan, a Law on Access to Information was approved in 2005. It has gone into effect. Previously in 1998 there was accepted Law on Freedom on Information, but the Law of 2005 provided more detailed and secured regulation for access to official information.
Information privacy law
The Data Act is the world's first national data protection law and was enacted in Sweden on 11 May 1973.
Freedom of information laws by country
In Ireland the Freedom of Information Act 1997 came into effect in April, 1998. This provided for members of the public to access information specifically about themselves, amend incorrect information, and request an explanation behind administrative decisions concerning themselves, as well as allowing any person to access records generated by a list of specified public bodies. The Act is seen as having led to a sea-change in the relationship between the citizen, journalists, government departments and public bodies. Disclosure is the default assumption of the Act; bodies can withhold information only by citing exemptions specified in the legislation. Decisions of public bodies in relation to requests for information may be reviewed by the Information Commissioner.
Data Act (Sweden)
In April 1973 the Riksdag uncontentiously passed the Data Act, also proposed in the report, which only slightly modified the commission's draft. It then came into force in July 1973. An associated amendment to the Freedom of the Press Act was adopted in February 1974 − around the same time as the Credit Information Act and the Debt Recovery Acts which regulated computerized credit information.
Free Internet Act
The Freedom of Internet Act (formerly Free Internet Act) is an act aimed to legislate the Internet and its uses worldwide, as an alternative to SOPA and PIPA. The idea was originated in a Reddit post and the act is being developed in a subsection of Reddit specifically created for this purpose. As one of the first instances of crowd sourcing legislation, it has raised questions concerning public participation in government in the 21st century. The act passed January 12, 2012.
Goa State Information Commission
Goa was among the earliest states of the Union of India to enact its own State Information Act. The first states in India to enact their own State Information Acts were Tamil Nadu and Goa, in the year 1997. However, the scope of the Goa State Information Act was limited in the sense that information could be sought only to subserve the public purpose. Under the Right to Information Act, 2005, no reasons are needed to be given while seeking information.
Walter Baker (Canadian politician)
In government, Baker introduced the first ever Access to Information Bill which died on the order paper with the Tory government. However, much of Baker's bill became part of the eventual "Access to Information Act" that was introduced by Liberal Solicitor-General Francis Fox in 1983 and passed by parliament into law.
Privacy and the US government
Some of the first legislation that outlined protecting and controlling dissemination of private personal information, the Privacy Act of 1974 was a response to the use of social security numbers to access user information. The act allows users to gain control of the information collected about them and even pursue legal measures if the company discloses any of his/her records without his/her written consent. The company collecting the information was held liable to make sure the information collected was accurate, provide access to the client to amend discrepancies, and ensure the information was not only recorded systematically but also easily accessible. These limitations were included as a result of the Fair Information Practices Principles (FIPP) which include notice/awareness, choice/consent, access/participation, integrity/security, and lastly enforcement/redress, all prevalent within the roles outlined by the government to companies keeping a system of records. The Privacy Act of 1974 was heavily influenced by William Prosser's reformulation of privacy rights in his outline.
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
The FOI Act has been a feature of Australia's legislative landscape since 1982. The purpose of the FOI Act was to open government activity to public scrutiny, so as to enhance accountability and encourage citizen engagement with public administration. In 2010, the Australian Parliament implemented wide-ranging open government reforms — the most significant FOI reforms in thirty years. The office was established and substantial changes were made to the FOI Act. These reforms simplified the process for accessing government information, tightened the exemptions to information release, strengthened independent oversight and review of FOI administration, promoted proactive publication of government information, and clearly stated the open government object of the FOI Act.
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Facts that have been brought to light by this Act include:The Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill was a private member's bill introduced to the British House of Commons in 2007 which failed to become law. Conservative MP David Maclean introduced the bill to ensure that MPs' correspondence was exempt from freedom of information laws. The then leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell, said there should not "be one law for MPs and a different law for everyone else" and that the Bill might make it appear as though "Parliament has something to hide". However, this failed to pass the first reading in the House of Lords.
Campaign for Freedom of Information
The Campaign was founded in 1984 by citizen campaigner Des Wilson to secure a freedom of information law in the UK. The organisation was officially launched on 5 January 1984 with the support of the 3 main opposition party leaders of the time and 150 MPs from all parties. The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, opposed FOI in principle saying that a legal power to force ministers to disclose information would weaken ministers’ accountability to Parliament. They worked to keep FOI on the political agenda until the climate became more favourable, while seeking to introduce specific rights to information through private members’ bills. Several private members’ bills that the Campaign drafted and promoted reached the statute book as the:The Campaign also drafted a bill to reform section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, a catch-all provision which made the unauthorised disclosure of any official information a criminal offence. The Protection of Official Information Bill, introduced by Richard Shepherd MP in 1988, would have replaced section 2 with a narrower measure that included a public interest defence. The bill was defeated after the government imposed an unprecedented three-line whip on its own MPs at second reading requiring them to vote it down. Mrs Thatcher’s Conservative government later introduced the Official Secrets Act 1989, which repealed section 2 of the 1911 Act, but rejected all efforts to insert a public interest defence.
Freedom of information laws by country
In the United States the Freedom of Information Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 4, 1966 and went into effect the following year. Ralph Nader has been credited with the impetus for creating this act, among others. The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments were signed by President Bill Clinton on October 2, 1996.
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
President Bush signed the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007, , on December 31, 2007. This law, also known as the "OPEN Government Act of 2007", amended the federal FOIA statute in several ways. According to a White House press release, it does so by:
Freedom of information laws by country
The Law on Freedom of Information was signed into law by the State President in November 1998 and has been amended a number of times recently. Any person can ask for information in "any technically feasible form" without having to show a reason. The request can be oral or written. Bodies must respond in 15 days.
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law in July 2010, included provisions in section 929I that shielded the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The provisions were initially motivated out of concern that the FOIA would hinder SEC investigations that involved trade secrets of financial companies, including "watch lists" they gathered about other companies, trading records of investment managers, and "trading algorithms" used by investment firms.
Internet censorship in the United States
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) was enacted in 1986 as an amendment to an existing computer fraud law (), which was part of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. The CFAA prohibits accessing a computer without authorization, or in excess of authorization. Since 1986, the Act has been amended a number of times—in 1989, 1994, 1996, in 2001 by the USA PATRIOT Act, 2002, and in 2008 by the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act. The CFFA is both a criminal law and a statute that creates a private right of action, allowing private individuals and companies to sue to recover damages caused by violations of this law.
Freedom of information laws by country
The Law on Access to Public Information was approved in September 2001 and went into effect in January 2002. The Act allows anyone to demand access to public information, public data and public assets held by public bodies, private bodies that exercise public tasks, trade unions and political parties. The requests can be oral or written. The bodies must respond within 14 days.
History of the Patriot Act
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, along with Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), had been working with John Ashcroft on a draft bill, called the "Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001". On September 19, 2001 this first draft is introduced to Congress. Many of the most controversial aspects of the USA PATRIOT Act were first part of this draft and it was later to be introduced as the PATRIOT Act/USA Act — which in turn became the basis for the final USA PATRIOT Act. Among other things, the administration proposal discussed extending roving wiretaps from the sole domain of domestic agencies into the domain of foreign intelligence surveillance and proposed the expansion of the use of wiretaps from phonelines to Internet technology. It would have made it possible for more law enforcement agencies to disseminate wiretap information and would have expanded the scope of surveillance subpoenas to allow broader access to personal records — including "books, records, papers, documents, and other items." Both the bill introduced by Senator Graham and the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act draft were referred to the Select Committee on Intelligence. According to "The Washington Post", EPIC's Jim Dempsey and a number of other representatives from other civil liberties groups were invited to discussions about the draft, but Dempsey's recollection was that "They [members of the Department of Justice] were livid, [and they] explicitly said, 'We don't think outsiders should be here, and we won't talk unless they leave the room.'" Although a deal was brokered, this began causing tensions between parties negotiating the bill and previously amicable discussions started breaking down between Leahy and Ashcroft.
Freedom of information laws by country
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (2000 c. 36) is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level, with the exception of Scottish bodies, which are covered by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (2002 asp. 13). Environmental information is covered by further legislation Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Tony Blair, the UK Prime Minister who introduced the Freedom of Information Act, later expressed regret over the Act, claiming that the Act impeded the ability of officials to deliberate "with a reasonable level of confidentiality".
Information privacy law
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. HIPAA is also known as the Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA-Public Law 104-191), effective August 21, 1996. The basic idea of HIPAA is that an individual who is a subject of individually identifiable health information should have:
Freedom of Information Act 2000
The act implements what was a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party in the 1997 general election. Before its introduction, there had been no right of access to government by the general public, merely a limited voluntary framework for sharing information.
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
Following the Watergate scandal, President Gerald R. Ford wanted to sign FOIA-strengthening amendments in the Privacy Act of 1974, but White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld and deputy Dick Cheney were concerned about leaks. Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Antonin Scalia advised the bill was unconstitutional and even telephoned the CIA asking them to lobby a particular White House staffer. President Ford was persuaded to veto the bill on October 17, 1974, according to documents declassified in 2004. However, on November 21, the lame-duck Congress overrode President Ford's veto, giving the United States the core Freedom of Information Act still in effect today, with judicial review of executive secrecy claims.
Access to public information in Europe
More than 100 countries around the world have now adopted national access to information laws to make the right to know effective. The first law on access to public information was adopted in Sweden in 1766, but after that one should wait almost one century to have the second law approved in Finland in 1951 and in the United States in 1966. During the 1970s and 1980s there has been a small but constant growth in FOI's laws, with a real expansion after 1989 due to the activism of civil society groups in Central and Eastern Europe during the post-Communist transitions to democracy. Indeed, the big push forward in the field of access to information leading to the broadening of the definition and of the scope of the right of access to information came together with a coordinated civil society reaction to contrast the control over the information exercised by Communist regimes in the Soviet bloc. It was this movement which gave a sound contribution to the development of access to information as a right in the sense of a human right. A 1992 decision of the Hungary's Constitutional Court established that access to information is a "fundamental right" essential for citizen oversight on the lawfulness and efficiency of the government. Moreover, environmentalist groups and consumer associations also contributed to the affirmation of the right to know.
FTC fair information practice
Fair Information Practice was initially proposed and named by the "US Secretary's Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems" in a 1973 report, "Records, Computers and the Rights of Citizens", issued in response to the growing use of automated data systems containing information about individuals. The central contribution of the Advisory Committee was the development of a code of fair information practice for automated personal data systems. 
The Privacy Protection Study Commission also may have contributed to the development of FIPs principles in its 1977 report, "Personal Privacy in an Information Society".
Jisc
In January 2005, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 came into full effect, giving the public a general right to access all types of recorded information held by public bodies. JISC took an important lead in raising the Act's profile in the academic community and published its own FOI Publication Scheme.
McCrone report
The report came to light in 2005 when the SNP obtained several UK Government papers under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The full provisions of the Act came into force on 1 January 2005.
Freedom of information
Secretive decision making by company directors and corporate scandal led to freedom of information legislation to be published for the benefits of investors. Such legislation was first adopted in Britain in the early 20th century, and later in North America and other countries. Disclosure regimes for the benefit of investors regained attention at the beginning of the 21st century as a number of corporate scandals were linked to accounting fraud and company director secrecy. Starting with Enron, the subsequent scandals involving Worldcom, Tyco, Adelphia and Global Crossing prompted the US Congress to impose new information disclosure obligations on companies with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002.
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 (–337), sometimes called Enforcement Act or Force Act, was a United States federal law enacted during the Reconstruction Era in response to civil rights violations to African Americans, "to protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights", giving them equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and to prohibit exclusion from jury service. The bill was passed by the 43rd United States Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875. The law was generally opposed by public opinion, but blacks did favor it. It was not effectively enforced and historian William Gillette says the passage of the law was an "insignificant victory." Eight years later, the Supreme Court ruled in "Civil Rights Cases" (1883) that the public accommodation sections of the act were unconstitutional, saying Congress was not afforded control over private persons or corporations.
The drafting of the bill was performed early in 1870 by Senator Charles Sumner, a dominant Radical Republican in the Senate, with the assistance of John Mercer Langston, a prominent African American who established the law department at Howard University. The bill was proposed by Senator Sumner and co-sponsored by Representative Benjamin F. Butler, both Republicans from Massachusetts, in the 41st Congress of the United States in 1870. Congress removed the coverage of public schools that Sumner had included. The act was passed by the 43rd Congress in February 1875 as a memorial to honor Sumner, who had just died. It was signed into law by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875.
Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002
The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA, , "et seq.") is a United States federal law enacted in 2002 as Title III of the E-Government Act of 2002 (, ). The act recognized the importance of information security to the economic and national security interests of the United States. The act requires each federal agency to develop, document, and implement an agency-wide program to provide information security for the information and information systems that support the operations and assets of the agency, including those provided or managed by another agency, contractor, or other source.