The Freedom of Information Act in most countries is a vital “right to know” tool.
I am obviously a huge fan of the Freedom of Information Act. At the same time, I think it's outmoded today; I think what we want to achieve, as I tried to articulate in the brief, is a “right to know” mindset. What we really want to do is create the right kinds of standards or floors or mechanisms whereby all of our federal agencies are required to voluntarily disclose certain types of information. Then the Freedom of Information Act becomes the safety net whereby if there is a problem with that voluntary disclosure system, there is a legal pathway through which citizens can redress their government, and there are judicial checks on that system.
So I am a huge fan of freedom of information, but I think that in today's age we want to create an even broader “right to know” agenda that is much more active, wherein the citizenry doesn't have to go item by item and request it.