Kendra S. Horn: “The hallmark of a free society is that those who are governed have access to the information within the control of those…”

“The hallmark of a free society is that those who are governed have access to the information within the control of those who govern. James Madison put it very well when he wrote very elegantly over two centuries ago: A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be the governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. Madison, whom we honor with the Madison Library of the Library of Congress, was certainly one of the most thoughtful of our founders and considered by many to be the Father of The Constitution. In this spirit, 30 years ago Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act, commonly referred to as the FOIA. The committee report that accompanied the original act summarized it as providing a ``true Federal public records statute by requiring the availability, to any member of the public, of all executive branch records'' described in that act.”