It has them running private prisons, designing location tracking technologies, and developing artificial intelligence AI systems that automate government decisions, such as determining our Medicaid benefits , bail , and even which children are purportedly at risk of abuse or neglect.
As we and several other organizations argued in a friend-of-the-court brief, it should not. The Freedom of Information Act FOIA , the law at the center of the case, requires the government to disclose information to the public upon request unless such information falls within one of nine narrow exemptions.
Under existing law, to successfully invoke Exemption 4, the government must show that public disclosure of that information would likely cause substantial competitive harm to a private entity. Department of Agriculture USDA seeking, among other things, the total amount of federal funds distributed to grocery stores participating in the government program that subsidizes purchases of groceries for low-income families. If you think you should have access to this content, click to contact our support team.
Contact us. Please note you do not have access to teaching notes. Other access options You may be able to access teaching notes by logging in via your Emerald profile. That the U. Eight blue-ribbon U. Classifying information is a key part of how the U. Dagestani weddings are serious business: a forum for showing respect, fealty and alliance among families; the bride and groom themselves are little more than showpieces.
Weddings take place in discrete parts over three days. Even U. Then there are the many scandals that were shielded from view—not just from the public, but from government officials who might have put a stop to them—at least in part by classification.
The higher the classification on a piece of information, the fewer people in government who can access it. Read: Revenge of the intelligence nerds. Thus, in the context of proceedings before the FISA Court, it seems much more likely that the court would be more inclined to push back against new government arguments—and to demand greater showings from the government—when it has confidence that such showings will not compromise the underlying secrecy of the programs being reviewed.
To be sure, there may be a greater-than-zero value to the potential outcry that would follow controversial public decisions by the FISA Court. Instead, if the real goal of reformers is accountability , we think reforms should focus instead on the following two basic ideas:. Accountability Through Secret Congressional Oversight. Of course, courts are neither the primary nor exclusive forum for providing oversight and accountability of government national security and counterterrorism policies.
Equally important to this conversation is the role of congressional oversight. And if judicial accountability of national security and counterterrorism policies has left a lot to be desired over the past decade, legislative accountability has perhaps fared even worse. Many commentators, and some members of the Senate and House, argue that the congressional oversight of U.
There are a number of different lines of criticism, with which we largely agree. First , observers have been quite critical of coziness between the congressional committees and the Executive Branch agencies within their oversight jurisdiction. Department of Homeland Security DHS , whereby it is both drowning in oversight interactions and less accountable to any mission critical priorities at the same time.
Where possible, the Executive Branch engages in forum shopping to find more accommodating committees. Moreover, Senators and Representatives tend to find it much less politically risky to err in favor of the national security secrecy arguments rather than risk blame in the aftermath of an attack. Second , Congress suffers from institutional mismatch with a sprawling Executive Branch in terms of size and information disadvantage.
Much like the challenges faced by a board of directors when it comes to management oversight of a Fortune company, Congress is at a serious time, location, and information disadvantage. Effective congressional oversight requires a mix of constructive interbranch relationships and aggression. Third , critics charge that oversight access to secret programs is too restrictive within Congress.
Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle e. Justin Amash R-Mich.
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