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New Publications, Posts, and Cases
Law Whispering is Dead, Long Live Law Whispering!
We don’ need no stinking SCOTUS opinions? The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has announced a Wednesday confirmation hearing for former Obama Environmental Protection Agency climate guru Joe Goffman to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation at the EPA. Goffman has served in an acting capacity or otherwise in-waiting since […]
D.C. Circuit Surprise Filing: Speaker McCarthy “Fully Supports” Pelosi Campaign to Shield Docs Re Use of Donor-Provided Investigative “Staff”
GAO wrote yesterday about the D.C. Circuit ordering new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to state his view on whether the House should be free from public scrutiny of (i.e., continue to keep secret) the machinations behind the importation of donor-provided ‘ringer’ staff — off the books and in violation of House rules, incidentally — […]
New Controversy Recalls Old Document Revelations
The Washington Times has a rather substantial exclusive up this morning, “Green groups, government officials meet secretly to plot end of gas stoves and appliances”. The piece keys off of the very real issue of using the state to ban gas stoves, expanding across the country and which recently stumbled onto the national stage with […]
DC Circuit Invites New Speaker to Reverse Pelosi Position on Secrecy re Oversight Abuses
Savvy readers will remember journalist Rob Schilling’s investigation into the weaponization of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. That Committee appeared, under its prior leadership, to be accepting “in kind” contributions from wealthy donors — boasted of by everyone from George Soros’s and Pierre Omidyar’s activist groups to the in-kind “staff” and Subcommittee Chair […]
About Government Accountability & Oversight
At the beginning of 2018, after several successful years pursuing transparency among activist public servants, including office holders, academics and even law enforcement, experienced attorneys from the litigation, prosecutorial and classical liberal think tank worlds joined together to create the non-profit public interest group Government Accountability & Oversight.
GAO pursues and supports litigation that seeks to ensure that governmental entities at state, local, and federal levels comply with their sunshine and transparency obligations under open records acts. Institutions suffer from capture – including, increasingly, the public’s academic institutions, enlisted by donors and ideologues as weapons in legal, political and policy battles, almost universally on one side of the ideological divide. As New York University professor Jonathan Haidt argues, academia cannot be devoted to the search for truth if it also has a political agenda.
More broadly, all public institutions (including those under the control of political actors) must exercise public authority and conduct the public’s business objectively and according to the institution’s mission.
GAO works to lessen the burdens of government and defend human, civil and property rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and secured by law, through ensuring the public is aware of how government institutions operate, with whom, toward what ends.
State and federal laws require transparency in public institutions, to allow for an educated public to understand how their institutions are being used – whether in cultural and ideological battles, or simply in ways that the institutions. or certain individuals in those institutions, would prefer be kept from the taxpayer on whose incomes they depend and whom they serve.
GAO has research, litigation, investigative journalism and publication functions, all combining to seek and educate about public information showing how policymakers and activists in the tort bar and educational institutions use public resources to advance a shared agenda, and private interests, with an emphasis on environmental and energy policy. By broadly disseminating the public information it obtains under open records and freedom of information laws, other organizations and individuals can benefit from the knowledge GAO uncovers.
Please support GAO as it continues to shine light on these activities, what the revelations mean and how these play in the policy and legal world, as well as how the activities they detail impact your lives.
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