Center for Study of Responsive Law’s Freedom of Information Clearinghouse

Center for Study of Responsive Law's Freedom of Information Clearinghouse

P.O. Box 19367,

Washington, D.C. 20036

In 1966, Ralph Nader published Unsafe at Any Speed, an exposé of safety problems with General Motors' Corvair. At first the book failed to spark the public's imagination. "But the subsequent Senate hearings on automobile design, with their revelations that General Motors had hired a detective to follow Nader ... caught the media's interest" (Council, 1976, p. 59). Nader was soon thrust into the public's eye; in fact, shortly thereafter he sued GM for $25 million, settling four years later for $425,000. After his investigation of the automobile industry, Nader recognized that a major void existed in the American political process: few, if any, groups existed to protect and safeguard the public interest. During the summer of 1968, Nader attempted to fill this gap by assembling a group of students (later called "Nader's Raiders") to investigate the Federal Trade Commission. The result was a full-blown study indicating a strong agency bias toward big business and cronyism.

After publishing this report, Nader (with the assistance of grants from the Carnegie and Stem foundations) established the Center for the Study of Responsive Law in June 1968 to coordinate future research endeavors (see Council for Public Interest Law, 1976, p. 60). Today, the center continues to act exclusively as a research institute, but it has created at least one program that uses the courts, the Freedom of Information Clearinghouse. According to this program, the organization "has been active in two principal areas." First, through congressional hearings and internal publications, the clearinghouse has tried "to disseminate information on government access laws to individuals and groups, and to assist in the effective use of freedom of information laws."

Second, the organization has undertaken an extensive program of litigation aimed at reducing "illegal secrecy and to secure judicial interpretations in areas where [Freedom of Information] Acts are unclear." In Stern v. Richardson (1973), for example, the clearinghouse represented Carl Stem, a newscaster for NBC, who wanted access to FBI files "concerning the establishment and disestablishment of several counter-intelligence agencies." In other cases, the group has actively assisted Nader-founded organizations and/or other public interest groups including the Aviation Consumer Action Project,* which wanted information on an airplane merger; Open America, a group of law students desiring access to the files on L. Patrick Gray; and the Consumers Union,* which "sought copies of reports on television access."

Lawyers from Public Citizen* and the Freedom of Information Clearinghouse have participated in a number of Freedom of Information Act cases before the court, including representing the requester in CIA v. Sims (1985), Administrator, FAA v. Robertson, (1985), and GTE Sylvania, Inc. v. Consumers Union of the United States (1980), and participating as an amicus in FBI v. Abramson (1982) and NLRB v. Robbins Tire & Rubber Co. (1978). In Church of Scientology of California v. IRS (1987), for example, clearinghouse lawyers filed because of their concern that the lower court decision "erects a virtually impenetrable wall around all information that can be gleaned from tax returns." An affirmance would thwart legitimate uses of tax data for academic research and to promote debate on matters of vital concern to the public, even where disclosure would not threaten the privacy of any taxpayer.

In litigating these specific issues, the clearinghouse always maintains an eye toward securing major judicial interpretations of the Freedom of Information Act. In Vaughn v. Rosen (1975), for example, a court of appeals ruled that in withholding requested information, the government must "generally submit a detailed index, itemization, and justification."

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Acton, J., and LeMond, A. (1972). Ralph Nader: A Man and a Movement(New York: Warner).
Buckhom, D. (1972). Nader: The People's Lawyer(New York: Prentice-Hall).
Burt, D. M. (1982). Abuse of Trust(Chicago: Regnery Gateway).
Ferraro, T. (1984). "Ralph Nader: Nation's Foremost Consumer Activist Graying but Still Crusading," Los Angeles Daily Journal97:4, November 14.
Holsworth, R. D. (1980). Public Interest Liberalism and the Crisis of Affluence(Boston: G. K. Hall).
McCarty, C. (1972). Citizen Nader(New York: Signet).
Sanford, D. (1976). Me & Ralph(Washington, D.C. The New Republic Book Co.). Nader, R. (1966). Unsafe at Any Speed(New York: Grossman).
Nader, R., and K. Blackwell (1973). You and Your Pension(New York: Grossman). Nader, R., et al. (1976). Constitutionalizing the Corporation(Washington, D.C.: Corporate Accountability Research Group).
Nader, R., and M. Green (eds.) (1976). Verdicts on Lawyers(New York: Crowell).