Fergie's Tech Blog

Fusion Center Meltdown: Feds Stifling Open Government in Virginia?

Jon Stokes writes on ARS Technica:

This past Friday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a Freedom of Information Act suit against the Virginia Department of State Police in an effort to uncover whether the federal government has been interfering in the state's open government legislation. EPIC suspects that the feds are trying to use the state police to pressure the Virginia legislature into passing a bill that will put limits on the state's open government laws and will encourage citizens to inform on one another by protecting anonymous tipsters from defamation and invasion of privacy lawsuits.

Why do the feds care about HB1007, the Virginia bill that open government advocates have decried as a major affront to privacy, civil liberties, and government accountability? In a word, it comes down to "fusion."

posted by Fergie @ 3/24/2008 12:24:00 PM