----------------------------------------------------------------- INFO-POLICY-NOTES / newsletter available from listproc@tap.org ----------------------------------------------------------------- INFORMATION POLICY NOTES September 24, 1996 - Today the Clinton Administration published 7,000+ Older U.S. Supreme Court Decisions on the Web, after a long dispute over public access to Air Force FLITE database of legal information. FLITE is the nation's oldest computer assisted legal research program, which began in 1963, and is still in operation. Until today, no court cases from FLITE had been available to the public. - The action places all U.S. Supreme Court Decisions from 1937 to 1975 on the Web. These include decisions from volumes 300 through 422 of U.S. Reports (the Official federal government reporter of U.S. Supreme Court Decisions). - The cases are now available from Fedworld, at http://www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/index.htm, and can be searched by keyword or by names of parties. The Government Printing Office (GPO) will soon have the opinions available on GPO Access. We assume that anyone can obtain the entire database. (As is required under the Paperwork Reduction Act.) - The battle over public access to court opinions now shifts to newer opinions from the Supreme Court, and lower court opinions. - "Slip" opinions from the Supreme Court from 1990 are generally available on the Web. The Cornell site is: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/ - The U.S. Supreme Court has printing tapes of most U.S. Supreme Court opinions published since the late 1970s. These tapes could be converted into HTML documents for publishing on the Web, but the Supreme Court still refuses to release them to the public. This is a benefit mainly to West Publishing, the large legal publishing firm that asserts a monopoly on citations and the text of corrected court opinions from lower federal courts. West is an active supporter of many favorite court charities, and until recently, spent large sums on lavish vacations for several members of the Supreme Court.for background. See for example: http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0038.html http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0142.html http://www.startribune.com/westpub/ - The Clinton Administration has yet to release a huge collection of lower court decisions and more recent Supreme Court decisions from Air Force FLITE database. The refusal is due in part to controversial assertions of copyright to the text of corrected court opinions by West. These copyright assertions did not come into play in the pre-1974 opinions, which were based upon the government's own reporter of court decisions. - White House Aide Tom Kalil, an active supporter of better public access to government information, played important role in persuading the Clinton Administration to release these important records. The press release announcing the release of the records was signed by Sally Katzen Administrator of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. We have been asking Katzen to do something about this for the past four years. The Air Force had been reluctant to release the opinions, for fear that West would cause the funding for FLITE to be eliminated, based upon West's impressive political influence. See West campagin contributions at: http://www.essential.org/cpt/legalinfo/westcontrib.html James Love, CPT & TAP 202-387-8030, love@tap.org The Katzen press release is attached. Background on the access dispute for FLITE is found in: http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0185.html http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0221.html More general background on dispute over legal information is at: http://www.essential.org/cpt/legalinfo/legalinfo.html The OMB release follows: ------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 16:09:52 -0400 (EDT) From: "Peter N. Weiss (202) 395-3630" Subject: FLITE materials now available on-line HISTORIC FILE OF SUPREME COURT DECISIONS AVAILABLE ON-LINE I am pleased to announce that the U.S. Air Force has agreed to release a historic file of Supreme Court decisions from its FLITE ("Federal Legal Information Through Electronics") system. The file consists of over 7000 Supreme Court opinions dating from 1937 through 1975, from volumes 300 through 422 of U.S. Reports. The decisions can be accessed on the National Technical Information Service's FedWorld system (http://www.fedworld.gov) and will soon be available on the Government Printing Office's GPO Access system (http://www.access.gpo.gov). This file had previously been determined to be exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. That decision was not appealed. Nonetheless, the Air Force has agreed as a matter of discretion to release these materials. Sally Katzen Administrator Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Office of Management and Budget September 25, 1996 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INFORMATION POLICY NOTES is a free Internet newsletter sponsored by the Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP) and the Consumer Project on Technology (CPT). Both groups are projects of the Center for Study of Responsive Law, which is run by Ralph Nader. The LISTPROC services are provide by Essential Information. Archives of INFO-POLICY-NOTES are available from http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/ TAP and CPT both have Internet Web pages. http://www.tap.org http://www.essential.org/cpt Subscription requests to info-policy-notes to listproc@tap.org with the message: subscribe info-policy-notes your name TAP and CPT can both be reached off the net at P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036, Voice: 202/387-8030; Fax: 202/234-5176 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++