After a 5-year legal battle, an Illinois FOIA lawsuit seeking database schemas from Chicago's parking ticket system ended in a unanimous Supreme Court loss, significantly broadening agencies' ability to withhold records. The case highlighted ongoing challenges in accessing public data through FOIA requests and revealed inconsistencies in how Chicago handles sensitive data disclosure.
A legal battle over database schema access through FOIA requests in Illinois reached the state Supreme Court, ultimately ruling that schemas could be withheld as 'file layouts.' New legislation (SB0226) aims to require public bodies to provide database structure descriptions, enabling citizens to request specific database queries.
In response to hundreds of federal data sets going offline under the Trump administration, organizations like Harvard's Library Innovation Lab and Internet Archive are leading preservation efforts. MuckRock is hosting an event featuring experts to discuss at-risk data and preservation strategies, while offering support for data archival projects.
DOGE employees have been ordered to stop using Slack while the agency transitions from the Office of Management and Budget to the Executive Office of the President, potentially limiting public access to records under FOIA. The move raises concerns among government experts about transparency and accountability, as records would only become accessible years after a president leaves office under the Presidential Records Act.