Tales of FOIA and Secrets, Then and Now

The Pentagon Papers case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Nixon administration’s attempt to bar publication of a detailed history of American involvement in southeast Asia prior to and during the Vietnam War, is rightly celebrated as a landmark decision in favor of government openness and accountability.

But the case also shows that tenacity and persistence is also required: by the journalists who analyzed and summarized the information in the documents, by the editors who resisted government pressure and by the owners who paid the bills for the court battle over publication. And two recent freedom of information cases—one national, one here in South Carolina—show that tenacity and persistence are still required for journalists to obtain public information and hold government accountable.