“Open & Shut”

AP Photo by Nam Y. Huh

“I look forward to receiving a response from the City of Chicago within the five business days prescribed by law… I have cleared my schedule for next weekend and look forward to doing a deep dive into the documents. I plan to learn everything I can about myself, and I believe I will enjoy this greatly. It’s a new me. The only four-letter F-word I use now is ‘FOIA.’”

– Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in an April Fool’s press release from the mayor’s office.

“If you haven’t cursed out a New York Times reporter during the course of a campaign, you’re not really a real Republican, is the way I look at it.”

– Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum said on “Fox & Friends,”  defending himself for cursing at Times reporter Jeff Zeleny.

“The City of Sanford kindly requests that members of the media refrain from approaching, phoning or emailing city employees when they are in their roles as private citizens. It has come to light that there have been a few incidents where city staff were followed and approached at their home or in settings outside of working hours. Law enforcement officials will not hesitate to make an arrest for stalking.”

– A press release issued by the City of Sanford, Fla., in late March.

“I don’t think you’ll find a reporter in Washington that thinks FOIA is an effective reporting tool.”

– Fred Schulte, senior reporter for iWatch News at the Center for Public Integrity, said at the “Transparency in the Obama Administration” conference hosted by the American University Washington College of Law.

“There’s something fishy in the pork plant.”

– Amanda Hitt, director of the Food Integrity Campaign for the Government Accountability Project, on criminal punishments for animal-facility employees who record activities at their workplace in order to inform others of wrongdoing occurring there.

“I think it’s a sweeping proposition to say that there’s no value to falsity. Falsity is a way in which we contrast what is false and what is true.”

– Justice Anthony Kennedy, oral argument in United States v. Alvarez.

“It should not be a partisan issue. I don’t care if you’re Democrat or Republican — there’s always going to be some group that says ‘Why do we have to release this?’”

– Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on the agency culture of withholding documents under FOIA, Senate Judiciary Hearing.