How Will President-elect Trump Deal with FOIA?

I’m a member of FOI-L, a listserv for serial Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesters to discuss the intricacies of government sunshine laws. In the days after Donald Trump’s election, members of the listserv have been discussing what FOIA—which allows citizens to request specific government documents from federal agencies—will look like under President-elect Trump.

While we have no way of knowing what President-elect Trump will do for sure, open government and journalists are bracing for an administration that could be more obstructionist. One thing we’re very likely to see in the next administration is a flurry of new FOIA requests and lawsuits from reinvigorated liberal nonprofit groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which, to be fair, were active FOIA requesters during the Obama administration as well. You should also keep an eye on Judicial Watch, a conservative group dedicated to filing FOIAs to expose government misconduct that currently has more than 20 open lawsuits against Hillary Clinton and sued the Obama administration more than 300 times.