3 ms·

I’m suing the US government for its data on who’s entering the country

47 points by dthal 10y ago

vonklaus 10y ago
> That argument misinterprets public records laws and is betrayed by its own logical conclusion: All it would take for the US government to prevent the disclosure of any information would be to place a high price tag on it. That clearly contradicts the intent of FOIA, which entitles the public to access all kinds of government records. This is the only argument needed to persuade me that this is worth litigating and fighting for. The government is the only entity which can really aggregate this data. It is funded by tax payers. If it is not a matter of national security; which it isn't as it is sold openly, it should be free to the tax payer which foots the bill for its collection. It would be harrowing if FOIA requests cost 4-6 figures...
- adanto6840 10y ago
  I completely agree. I've been part of an organization that sent numerous FOIA requests out via our legal team, mostly to smaller county or city level agencies. In some cases City A would respond (San Fransisco was in this bucket) and say: "Sure, we'll have it by X! What email address should we send the data to?" In other cases (a few agencies in Hawaii come to mind), for the exact same dataset / FOIA request -- in fact, with an order of magnitude fewer responsive data records -- the agency would require payment in the amount of $100,000+. True story, first-hand experience...
  - vonklaus 10y ago
    wow. how did you handle those 100k demands? what was the outcome?
yuhong 10y ago
I am thinking that FOIA and similar laws should be more specific on which kinds of data are considered public record.
- abustamam 10y ago
  I feel like any data that are funded via tax payer dollars should be public record.
sndean 10y ago
One of Fivethirtyeight's podcasts had Yanofsky on recently: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-to-access-government-data-on-immigration-only-173775/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-to-access-gover...
bpchaps 10y ago
Man... when I contacted journalists about writing an article about my lawsuit against Chicago for the mayor's phone records, they all told me "tell us when you're done." and wouldn't touch it with ten foot pole. Very strange to see this getting attention after all that. That said, this is friggin' awesome. Best of luck to him! My suit was eventually dropped after the judge essentially told Chicago to JFGI after their claims of burden in checking if a number is in public domain was costing the city a fortune and burden. It just took six months to get to that point and a year and a half in total... Thankfully, I found a good reporter who's very interested in writing for me. My writing skills are just too shite for anything that public. :)

47 points by dthal 10y ago

> That argument misinterprets public records laws and is betrayed by its own logical conclusion: All it would take for the US government to prevent the disclosure of any information would be to place a high price tag on it. That clearly contradicts the intent of FOIA, which entitles the public to access all kinds of government records. This is the only argument needed to persuade me that this is worth litigating and fighting for. The government is the only entity which can really aggregate this data. It is funded by tax payers. If it is not a matter of national security; which it isn't as it is sold openly, it should be free to the tax payer which foots the bill for its collection. It would be harrowing if FOIA requests cost 4-6 figures...

adanto6840 10y ago
I completely agree. I've been part of an organization that sent numerous FOIA requests out via our legal team, mostly to smaller county or city level agencies. In some cases City A would respond (San Fransisco was in this bucket) and say: "Sure, we'll have it by X! What email address should we send the data to?" In other cases (a few agencies in Hawaii come to mind), for the exact same dataset / FOIA request -- in fact, with an order of magnitude fewer responsive data records -- the agency would require payment in the amount of $100,000+. True story, first-hand experience...
- vonklaus 10y ago
  wow. how did you handle those 100k demands? what was the outcome?

yuhong 10y ago

I am thinking that FOIA and similar laws should be more specific on which kinds of data are considered public record.

abustamam 10y ago
I feel like any data that are funded via tax payer dollars should be public record.

sndean 10y ago

One of Fivethirtyeight's podcasts had Yanofsky on recently: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-to-access-government-data-on-immigration-only-173775/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-to-access-gover...

bpchaps 10y ago

Man... when I contacted journalists about writing an article about my lawsuit against Chicago for the mayor's phone records, they all told me "tell us when you're done." and wouldn't touch it with ten foot pole. Very strange to see this getting attention after all that. That said, this is friggin' awesome. Best of luck to him! My suit was eventually dropped after the judge essentially told Chicago to JFGI after their claims of burden in checking if a number is in public domain was costing the city a fortune and burden. It just took six months to get to that point and a year and a half in total... Thankfully, I found a good reporter who's very interested in writing for me. My writing skills are just too shite for anything that public. :)