Wells' catalogue of anti-democratic government conduct goes beyond withholding information that should be shared with the citizenry. Her research also covers government's attempts to prevent its critics from speaking up, plus illegal or unethical information-gathering about real or imagined enemies that invades individual privacy.

Wells' research suggests a tripartite path to reform. First, Congress should consolidate exemptions for disclosure of national security information in one statute, replacing the current patchwork approach. Second, she says, lawmakers should explicitly define the boundaries of secrecy. Finally, Congress should require judges to review documents requested by citizens but withheld under the national security exemption. Currently, she argues, judges frequently refuse to review documents because of excessive deference to the executive branch.

Wells is aware that such reforms, even if enacted, might fail to lead to a better-informed citizenry. "So strong is the pull of secrecy that one can plausibly argue the futility of statutory schemes and judicial review," she says. "After all, executive officials control this information in the first place and hold the upper hand in responding to requests. If they do not wish to disclose information, they can find ways to withhold it, regardless of whether it is properly classified. Excessive secrecy may thus be inevitable."

But doing nothing, she says, would be a big mistake. "Legal mechanisms such as statutory requirements and judicial review are part of the overall backdrop against which officials make decisions to withhold information," she says. "Congressional standards thus send an important signal to resist the inevitable pull toward secrecy that threatens to engulf democratic notions of government premised upon openness and accountability."

Enforcing Openness

The University of Missouri Journalism School is home to both the Freedom of Information Center (FOI) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). Both organizations have attracted faculty and staff who, like Christina Wells at the MU School of Law, end up on the cutting edge of scholarly and day-to-day efforts to demand government responsibility.

Professor Paul Fisher founded the Freedom of Information Center in 1958 and served as its director, with a few hiatuses, until he retired from the journalism faculty 31 years later. Along with staff members such as Kathleen Edwards, currently in her 19th year at the center, Fisher built an unmatched collection of newspaper clippings, magazine articles, broadcast transcripts, books, government documents and scholarly studies relating to information collection, dissemination and repression.

During Fisher's directorship, MU journalism students who were influenced by his knowledge and passion became national leaders in the freedom of information movement. They include Rebecca Daugherty, now at the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C., and Harry Hammitt, editor/publisher of Access Reports, a nationally circulating newsletter based in Lynchburg, Va.

"I remember wandering into a small alcove on the second floor of Walter Williams Hall, where Paul Fisher had his office and a small classroom," Hammitt says. "At the end of the alcove was a room packed with newspaper clippings and other historical documents, concerning pretty much anything about the press." Before Hammitt left the journalism school with his master's degree in 1977, he had completed Fisher's Controls of Information course, written a thesis under Fisher's direction, and become a lifelong admirer of his professor.

After Fisher stepped aside as center director, the operation drifted somewhat. New directors served briefly, then left for one reason or another. Control of funding and staffing flip-flopped between the journalism school and Ellis Memorial Library. It was not until Charles Davis joined the MU journalism faculty six years ago that the center not only regained its international prominence, but also began to grow.

"When I arrived at MU, I found a dedicated staff at the FOI Center, but lack of prominence and academic mission made it an afterthought on the FOI radar," Davis says. "When Dean Mills asked me to oversee the center, I leapt at the opportunity, because I knew the people were in place to do great things."