Lawsuits Increase Despite White House Transparency Pledge, Court Records Show

More than 300 people and groups have sued the Obama administration fighting to get federal government records in the year since President Obama pledged his administration would be the most open in history.

In case after case, the plaintiffs contend that little has changed since the Bush administration, when most began their quests for records. Agencies still often fight requests for disclosure, contending that national security and internal decision making needs to be protected.

The lawsuits cover a wide range of issues. A retired Marine wants to review soldier autopsies to learn whether the Pentagon has issued defective body armor. A Texas law professor questions whether the route for the Mexico-U.S. border fence unfairly harmed minority landowners. Closer to home, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation continues its fight to learn whether agencies are properly punishing those who destroy wetlands.

Despite the administration's progress in opening scores of important and once-secret documents, court dockets show a slight increase in the number of suits filed under the federal Freedom of Information Act since Obama was sworn into office. The electronic court records show 319 lawsuits filed since January 2009. Under the final two years of the Bush administration, 278 and 298 records lawsuits were filed in 2007 and 2008, respectively. People seeking records can sue only after the government repeatedly rejects their requests, usually after months of attempts and appeals.

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White House Blocks Visitor Log Request

The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn't have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions.

Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.

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Federal Declassification Effort Faces Huge Problem

The government is lagging far behind in declassifying its secrets and the problem is getting worse as agencies create billions more electronic records containing classified information.

In a report released Jan. 9, a joint presidential-congressional advisory panel urged greater openness, a sore subject for a White House roundly criticized for secrecy.

The Public Interest Declassification Board said President Bush could take immediate steps to address the issue.

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