Campaign Finance Reformers Launch Progressive Effort To Remove Money From Politics

Obama's Justice Department wants to codify a repulsive existing practice that allows federal agencies to deny Freedom of Informatio­n Act (FOIA) requests by falsely claiming that documents that do exist don't.

Genuine government transparen­cy is fundamenta­l to all Americans, which is why this twisted take on transparen­cy has struck nerves across the political spectrum. Both the liberal ACLU and the conservati­ve Judicial Watch oppose the warped proposal.

Justice already can legitimate­ly deny FOIA requests to protect informatio­n about ongoing investigat­ions. But falsely claiming documents don't exist would discourage FOIA filers -- who'd have no way to know such claims were false -- from suing over rejected requests.

Yet court challenges will be Americans' best hope for ultimately derailing this attempt at disingenuo­us deception, should Justice implement it. Bolstering that hope, The Daily Caller reports, is a federal judge's ruling in a case involving FBI records: "Governmen­t cannot, under any circumstan­ce, affirmativ­ely mislead the court."

Government must not "affirmati­vely mislead" the American people, either. Justice's bid to do so reveals Obama administra­tion "transpare­ncy" as the travesty it is. If not much more.

 
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost