Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Ecology Of Transparency Reloaded, Seth F. Kreimer

All Faculty Scholarship

As Justice Stewart famously observed, "[t]he Constitution itself is neither a Freedom of Information Act nor an Official Secrets Act." What the Constitution's text omits, the last two generations have embedded in "small c" constitutional law and practice in the form of the Freedom of Information Act and a series of overlapping governance reforms including Inspectors General, disclosure of political contributions, the State Department’s “Dissent Channel,” the National Archives Information Security Oversight Office, and the publication rights guaranteed by New York Times v. United States. These institutions constitute an ecology of transparency.

The late Justice Scalia argued that the …

Petitions, Privacy, And Political Obscurity, Rebecca Green

Faculty Publications

People who sign petitions must accept disclosure of their political views. This conclusion rests on the seemingly uncontroversial (if circular) premise that petition signing is a public activity. Courts have thus far shown little sympathy for individuals who take a public stand on an issue by signing a petition and then assert privacy claims after the fact. Democracy, after all, takes courage, as Justice Scalia wrote in the petitioning disclosure case Doe v. Reed. But signing a petition today brings consequences beyond public criticism. The real threat of disclosure for modern petition signers is not tangible harassment, but the loss …

Lying To Protect Privacy, Anita L. Allen

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Trends. The Tale Of The Tape: The Consequences Of Public Self-Consciousness For Political Life, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the influence of technology on political behavior involving the increasing sophistication of monitoring devices.