Thus, Sunday is
also celebrated as the first day of Sunshine Week (March 16-22), marking both
Madison’s birth and the passage in 1966 of the federal Freedom of Information
Act. Throughout the week, public officials, civic groups, journalists,
nonprofits, historians and citizens across the country will mark Sunshine Week
with commemorations, forums, speeches and opinion articles in the news media…… heretofore
unpublished reports by the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional
Responsibility (OPR) concerning more than 650 cases between fiscal years 2002
to 2013 in which government lawyers and other department employees committed
serious offenses.
“The violations
include instances in which attorneys who have a duty to uphold justice have,
according to [OPR], misled courts, withheld evidence that could have helped
defendants, abused prosecutorial and investigative power, and violated
constitutional rights,” POGO said. The violations span the Bush and Obama
administrations.
The government’s
record on these matters has been spotty at best over the years. The Clinton
administration extolled disclosure of such cases, but often failed to live up
to its promises. Transparency and accountability are of particular importance
when it concerns how the government conducts its civil and criminal justice
investigations and prosecutions. As POGO observed in its study, when reports
like these are kept in the dark, “the department, its lawyers, and the internal
watchdog office itself are insulated from meaningful public scrutiny and
accountability.”…..To Read More….
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