The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provides that any person has a right, enforceable in court, to obtain access to federal agency records, except to the extent that such records (or portions of them) are protected from public disclosure by one of nine exemptions or by one of three special law enforcement record exclusions. A FOIA request can be made for any agency record. Before sending a request to a federal agency, you should determine which agency is likely to have the records you are seeking. Each agency’s website will contain information about the type of records that agency maintains.
FOIA only covers the federal government, but every state has their own version, often referred to as “open-records” or “public records” laws. These open-records laws have similar roots, but there are still differences from state to state.
Sometimes the public records you need may have been successfully FOIA'd by another journalist. If they have, and that journalist has posted them in a FOIA repository, that can save you a lot of time! These repositories of successful FOIA'd documents are a great place to search before making your request.
While FOIA covers access to federal government agency records, state Sunshine Laws or other open records statutes provide public access to state and local government records. All 50 states have laws that govern access to these documents, though the provisions of the state laws vary considerably as does their enforceability.
Content on this page was adapted from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests by Katy Boss at NYU Libraries.
