The solar is setting on authorities transparency in Florida – and secrecy creep is affecting the remainder of the US, too

Florida, the “Sunshine State,” as soon as generally known as a beacon of presidency transparency, is rising ever darker, and the clouds are spreading all through the US.

From March 16-22, 2025, the nation celebrates the twentieth anniversary of nationwide Sunshine Week, which originated in Florida, traditionally residence to essentially the most clear and accountable governments within the nation.

Instances have modified.

On the College of Florida Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Data Mission, my colleagues and I’ve researched and taught concerning the freedom of data since 1977. We monitor the state of open, accountable authorities, and our analysis findings don’t bode effectively for democracy – in Florida and all through the U.S.

However first, let’s look again to sunnier days.

Solar rises

Florida enacted its first model of a public information legislation in 1909, the sixth state to take action. The motion was led by Nebraska in 1866 and Montana in 1895. Florida’s legislation was repealed within the Nineteen Fifties after which returned in 1967 because the Sunshine Regulation.

“Sunshine” was equated with the state’s nickname but in addition the idea of presidency transparency – lighting the darkish recesses of secrecy. The Sunshine Regulation additionally performed on a well-known quote by former Supreme Court docket Justice Louis Brandeis that “Daylight is alleged to be the very best of disinfectants; electrical mild essentially the most environment friendly policeman.”

One thing distinctive occurred in Florida then. Transparency took maintain.

Journalists corresponding to Pete Weitzel on the Miami Herald pushed arduous for governments to function extra transparently, constructing momentum by way of the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. They and different media teams helped launch, with US$11,000, the Florida Freedom of Data Clearinghouse in 1977 on the College of Florida. The journalism school assigned a professor and grad pupil to observe public report denials, open assembly closures and court docket instances, and to alert newspaper editors to secrecy laws. This effort created a tradition of transparency, together with amongst elected leaders.

Journalists efficiently pushed for a constitutional modification within the early Nineties, which required transparency throughout the state and required a two-thirds vote from the state Legislature to undertake exemptions to the legislation.

A number of provisions of Florida public information legislation stood out:

• Lawyer fee-shifting is necessary. If a citizen is denied authorities info, sues and prevails, the company is required to pay the individual’s legal professional charges. Our analysis signifies that this is among the most necessary components in public report legal guidelines to encourage compliance.

• The definition of a public report is broad, even making use of to paperwork created by a non-public individual or contractor performing on behalf of the federal government. Making use of the legislation to non-public actors is exclusive within the U.S., and even on the earth.

• Governing our bodies face strict necessities to deliberate in public. Simply two officers speaking with one another constitutes an official assembly and have to be introduced forward of time, permitting for public attendance. Most states require a quorum, or majority, of the governing physique to be thought-about an official assembly.

The nonprofit Florida First Modification Basis was launched in 1985 to advertise authorities transparency and employed its first paid worker, Barbara Petersen, in 1995, to observe secrecy laws, prepare public staff and support folks attempting to get info. The group banded with the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors to create Sunshine Sunday every March to advertise the correct to know. This occasion went nationwide in 2005 as Sunshine Week.

All these components led Florida to turn into generally known as the most clear state within the nation.

Growing clouds

Quick ahead to 2025, and we see a wholly completely different local weather in Florida.

The decline of newspapers has meant fewer reporters pushing for information, fewer editors advocating for transparency, and fewer homeowners suing authorities businesses.

Copy prices associated to getting public information create boundaries for common residents. Analysis reveals that offering payment waivers would improve accessibility with out important prices.

Via the years, legislators turned emboldened to move extra exemptions to the Florida Sunshine Regulation – greater than 1,100 and rising. A few of these exemptions had been centered on defending private privateness – for instance, in response to journalists requesting the post-mortem file of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt after his 2001 demise.

Concern of terrorists following 9/11 led to a flurry of exemptions, corresponding to hiding information about crop dusters to forestall al-Qaida from hijacking planes to unfold anthrax.

Corporations taking advantage of public information sparked one other backlash. For instance, some firms acquired public mugshots, posted them on-line and allowed folks to have them eliminated for a value. Some attorneys gamed the fee-shifting provision, submitting public report requests that might be troublesome to meet, sued instantly after which settled with businesses for 1000’s of {dollars}.

Elected leaders turned towards transparency, Petersen, who now directs the Florida Middle for Authorities Accountability, instructed me just lately. One of many outstanding examples she factors to is Gov. Ron DeSantis’ refusal to reveal his journey expense information.

I hear it each week – calls from journalists and others stymied by state and native authorities businesses. They typically cite excessive copy charges for public information, claims of exemptions and outright ghosting by businesses. One reporter encountered Miami metropolis commissioners sworn in at a non-public ceremony. One other challenged Tallahassee police refusing to offer details about an officer-involved capturing. A university journalism pupil was instructed she needed to pay $1,665 for information about Florida dams that might fail and ended up pleading with the federal government to “free the dam information.”

One in all my research from 2019 indicated that, on common, in the event you requested a public report in Florida, you’d obtain it about 39% of the time. That positioned the state thirty first within the nation, the underside half.

More moderen information from the nonprofit MuckRock studies Florida’s share declining – as of February 2025, to 35%.

Bobby Block, present director of the Florida First Modification Basis, wrote in February that “There was a time when Florida set the gold normal for open authorities. … These days are over.”

Not simply Florida

Florida is reflective of a nationwide pattern – a secrecy creep spreading all through the nation, culminating in transparency deserts in cities massive and small.

America is dropping its repute as a frontrunner in open, accountable authorities. Its federal Freedom of Data Act, typically generally known as FOIA, ranks 78th in energy out of 140 nations, and constantly drops as new nations undertake higher legal guidelines. An info commissioner from Africa instructed me a number of months in the past that he and his colleagues chortle at the US’ weak FOIA legislation, referring to it as a “toothless poodle.”

On common, in line with our analysis, in the event you requested for a public report in America 10 years in the past, you’d get it about half the time. Now, it’s all the way down to a couple of third of the time, and simply 12% on the federal stage.

Even the U.S. Division of Justice’s personal statistics present the same decline in full launch of information, and the common response time has almost doubled over the identical interval, from 21 to 40 days.

What occurs when compliance reaches 0%?

Other than the ramifications on democracy itself, each American will really feel the ache of their pocketbooks and on a regular basis lives.

Research present that public report legal guidelines result in cleaner consuming water, safer eating places, better-informed faculty alternative, much less corruption, saved tax {dollars} and a decrease likelihood of intercourse offenders reoffending.

In response to Stanford economist James Hamilton, for each greenback spent on public-records journalism, society advantages $287 in saved lives and extra environment friendly authorities.

Some transparency advocates have raised the alarm on actions taken by the brand new Trump administration, such because the removing of company web sites, the firing of FOIA employees and the dismantling of the Open Authorities Federal Advisory Committee.

It’s possible these efforts will escalate the secrecy creep and permit it to trickle all the way down to the state and native ranges. It is very important be aware, although, that declining transparency is a long-term pattern that transcends anybody president or political social gathering. The federal authorities reached its absolute low in full compliance with FOIA final yr, underneath the Biden administration.

It’s simple to level fingers at one politician, however maybe wiser to take a look at the complete system, which many students say is damaged and ought to be reimagined.

German sociologist Max Weber posited that secrecy is the pure tendency for paperwork if left unchecked. For many years, information firms, significantly in Florida, pushed again towards that secrecy by way of public stress and litigation.

With that opposing drive weakened, if not disappearing, what or who will substitute it?

Nonprofit teams have stuffed a number of the hole, and impartial on-line information websites are rising and imposing public report legal guidelines.

However will it’s sufficient? Finally, it’s as much as the citizenry. If the folks don’t cherish and demand clear authorities, then the politicians definitely gained’t, whether or not in Florida or the remainder of the nation.