A few weeks ago I talked about the great tips and strategies suggested by David Cuillier in his Access Across America talk. Between the things Cuillier had to say during the presentation, the fantastic handouts and Cuillier’s book, The Art of Access, there are so many helpful suggestions that it’s hard to pick among as candidates for further exploration.

Maybe, then, it’s best to start at the beginning. The beginning of a FOIA request, that is. The “Ask.”

Public records in Virginia are presumed open. As such, they must be disclosed upon request unless a law in another part of the Virginia (or, possibly federal) law prohibits it. Period.

But, wait a minute, what about exemptions to disclosure in FOIA? Don’t those prohibit disclosure?

No, no they don’t.

FOIA’s 142-some-odd exemptions are discretionary.

It happened again today.

Some FOIA issues come up over and over and over. Usually, it’s an overarching issue with lots of possible permutations. That is, maybe it’s an issue having to do with response time, but there are a thousand different scenarios. Or, maybe it’s about exemptions, but there are over 120 exemptions and thus at least 120 different issues.

But some issues are so narrow and so specific, and they often come in such rapid succession that it sometimes feels that the government employees who fill FOIA requests recently got together and created a Stonewall of the Week response.

My use of the word “narrow” above was not by chance. The issue that came up today, and recently has been coming up with great frequency, is when government employees tell FOIA requesters that they must “narrow the scope” of their request.