Getting to Know the FOIA Advisory Committee: Richard Peltz-Steele

Today we present an interview with Richard Peltz-Steele, Professor of Law at the University of Massachusetts School of Law and a member of the 2024-2026 FOIA Advisory Committee. This is part of a series of posts on the Committee, whose members are FOIA experts from inside and outside of government and who are appointed by the Archivist of the United States.

Why did you wish to serve on the FOIA Advisory Committee?

The Advisory Committee presents an opportunity for ordinary people such as me to have input on how the government works. I've been devoted to transparency and accountability since my young adult training as a student journalist. Having worked with record custodians and requesters, I've found ample good will on both sides. Often, access is complicated not by ill intentions, but by misunderstanding and structural deficiencies. As a body that includes non-government representatives, the Advisory Committee is uniquely positioned to bridge the gap and combat these impediments. I hope my experience, which is mostly at the state level and in comparative research, can bring fresh perspective to the work.

How do you think this experience will help you in your work?

As a professor, my desire is to equip tomorrow's lawyers with an understanding of how transparency protects democracy. There are forces in society today, regardless of partisan allegiance, that foster illiberal tendencies. Freely flowing information is an antidote, and the bar should be part of that response. Already, work on the Advisory Committee has given me a better understanding of the challenges in achieving a smoothly functioning access system in the federal government. I've also begun learning from gifted people, and of fabulous ideas to tackle those challenges. The more I can bring this contemporary work into the law school classroom, the better equipped law students will be as professionals to protect democracy.

What is FOIA's biggest challenge?

If I can name one only, the biggest challenge I see to both federal and state FOIA is simply volume. The number of records maintained is multiplying exponentially in the information age, and the complexity of the access process, such as the legitimate need to protect personal privacy, is multiplying accordingly, in excess of the capacity of even well-meaning and hard-working officers to comply. There is no single solution, but there are promising strategies, such as proactive disclosure and artificial intelligence, that must be brought to bear in creative solutions.

Tell us about your favorite FOIA moment.

My own experiences aside, the best thing that can happen for a teacher is to see a student thrive. In recent years, one superb student turned an FOI class paper into an award-winning research publication on access and accountability in privatized prisons. Later, she went to work as a FOIA attorney for the federal government. Whatever she does in her career, she always will be a frontline advocate for access to information and responsible disclosure, and thereby a defender of democracy.