Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-5-2007
Abstract
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the “Global War on Terror” has marginalized the rule of law. From the dragnet detentions in the aftermath of the initial attacks, to novel and secretive surveillance authority under the Patriot Act, to the incarceration and torture of “enemy combatants,” the administration’s “war” has sought to establish zones of maneuver free of both legal constraint and of political oversight. In the first half decade of these efforts, the tripartite constitutional structure which is said to guard against executive usurpation remained largely quiescent. Opponents both inside and outside of the government turned instead to subconstitutional structures to expose this self-avowed “dark side,” and to lay the foundation for a return to the rule of law. This Article examines four case studies of this strategy of transparency. At the center of each account lies the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The studies highlight, however, the crucial roles played by a broader complex of structures of transparency that have come to constitute the framework of national governance during the last generation, the importance of the integrity of the civil servants administering those structures, and the fulcrum of sustained advocacy.
Keywords
war on terror, PATRIOT Act, enemy combatants, Freedom of Information Act
Publication Title
Lewis & Clark Law Review
Repository Citation
Kreimer, Seth F., "Rays of Sunlight in a Shadow “War”: FOIA, the Abuses of Anti-Terrorism, and the Strategy of Transparency" (2007). All Faculty Scholarship. 187.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/187
Included in
American Politics Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Law and Politics Commons, President/Executive Department Commons
Publication Citation
11 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 1141 (2007).