Comments on: Origins of “The Right to Know” http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2006/03/origins_of_the_right_to_know.html Secrecy News from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy Thu, 24 May 2012 10:04:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Mark Lowenthal http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2006/03/origins_of_the_right_to_know.html/comment-page-1#comment-491 Mark Lowenthal Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:13:23 +0000 http://fasweb.beacontec.com/blog/secrecy/2006/03/origins_of_the_right_to_know.html#comment-491 I very much appreciate the plug for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933116021/sr=1-1/qid=1154452266/ref=sr_1_1/103-9252296-8502228?ie=UTF8&s=books" rel="nofollow">my book</a> (now in its 3rd edition) re my comments on the Constitution and the public's right to know. Your comments notwithstanding, my statement remains correct as written. There is no blanket Constitutional "right to know." I am not a lawyer but I am hard pressed to see how the Constitutional requirement to publish certain types of information, such as the budget, then translates into a blanket right. FOIA obviously creates a requirement to publish information. It also grants limits and restrictions on that requirement for classified information. Again, I do not see how this translates into a blanket right and we obviously cannot have a circumstance in which a law supersedes the Constitution. Moreover, not every law is based on "rights." Some are administrative in nature, which is how I would characterize FOIA. Mark Lowenthal I very much appreciate the plug for my book (now in its 3rd edition) re my comments on the Constitution and the public’s right to know. Your comments notwithstanding, my statement remains correct as written. There is no blanket Constitutional “right to know.” I am not a lawyer but I am hard pressed to see how the Constitutional requirement to publish certain types of information, such as the budget, then translates into a blanket right.

FOIA obviously creates a requirement to publish information. It also grants limits and restrictions on that requirement for classified information. Again, I do not see how this translates into a blanket right and we obviously cannot have a circumstance in which a law supersedes the Constitution. Moreover, not every law is based on “rights.” Some are administrative in nature, which is how I would characterize FOIA.

Mark Lowenthal

]]> By: Carol J. Monical http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2006/03/origins_of_the_right_to_know.html/comment-page-1#comment-490 Carol J. Monical Wed, 08 Mar 2006 01:07:01 +0000 http://fasweb.beacontec.com/blog/secrecy/2006/03/origins_of_the_right_to_know.html#comment-490 To me it is inherent in a representative democratic system that a person has the right to know what the government is doing. Otherwise, how can one make any decision, particularly intelligent decisions, about for whom to vote. To me it is inherent in a representative democratic system that a person has the right to know what the government is doing.

Otherwise, how can one make any decision, particularly intelligent decisions, about for whom to vote.

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