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New Publications, Posts, and Cases
Biden Admin FOIA Crackpottery
InsideEPA reports on some For Us, By Us nuttery representing the Left’s “some are more equal than others” view of the public seeking equal rights to access public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). As this email obtained in GAO v. Regents affirms, it is also precisely the brand of crackpottery an […]
Study Highlights GAO Work on “Climate Risk Disclosure”
An item in Forbes today writes about a recent Consumers’ Research study that heavily cites GAO, some of which is also linked to by the writer. As noted in today’s summary: Read the story here, and the whole report here.
EPA Defies the Supreme Court
Counsel for GAO in numerous open records lawsuits Chris Horner had an opinion piece leading Friday’s Wall Street Journal Opinion page. The scheme revealed is reminiscent of the machinations detailed in this amicus brief, filed by Horner on behalf of Energy Policy Advocates and which revealed early on the Biden EPA’s interest in going around […]
GAO Sues New Jersey AG for Climate Contract
Readers of Climate Litigation Watch are familiar with both the recent machinations in New Jersey, and also the curiousso-called “contingency” relationship between progressive politicians and the plaintiffs’ bar. Emails obtained in GAO v. Regents confirmed that the law firm filing the bulk of these suits is already being paid millions of dollars to file them. These millions first came as “charitable grants” […]
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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