Did Kim Jong Un’s Cousin Hold a Security Clearance?

An appreciation of the U.S. culture around public records

There are a lot of valid criticisms to be made of the United States. Our privatized health care system is a sham. This is the only major economy without paid family leave. Americans own 120 guns for every 100 people, more than double the next-highest per capita rate in the world. But there is one area in which the United States is arguably the world leader: freedom of information.

The United States was the second country in the world to implement a federal freedom of information law when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) into law in 1966. The law has been amended and updated multiple times in the near-six decades since, most notably in 1996 when President Bill Clinton signed the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments clarifying that most electronic records would be susceptible to FOIA requests as well.

Sweden is full of try-hards | Map credits: Statista

It’s easy to see why FOIA is so popular. Right-leaning small government conservatives w…