Play 'Ray of Sunshine' Open Gov/FOIA Game

You can find this game online by clicking here.

Challenge yourself, have fun and learn about why open government and freedom of information in the U.S. is to be cherished and held to high standards.

If you're not sure of an answer, please look at end of article for the right one. If you play online, there's an excellent reward at the end of the game: You can brag on Facebook or Twitter that you're a Ray of Sunshine!

1. Congress is not subject to the federal open meetings law. Indeed, any House or Senate member can request a secret meeting without notice. Since 1830, how many times has the House met in secret?

a. 4 b. 40 c. 400 d. 4,000

2. The oldest outstanding FOIA request at the end of the government's 2010 fiscal year had been pending far longer than the 20 business days the law allows for a response. In which of the following years was it filed?

a. 1973 b. 1983 c. 1993 d. 2003

3. Which one of the following celebrities has not been involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit?

a. Joan Baez b. Jane Fonda c. Carole King d. Barbara Streissand

4. The first Freedom of Information Act was adopted by the Swedish legislature at the urging of a clergyman. How long would it be before the United States Congress would adopt a similar law?

a. 50 b. 100 c. 150 d. 200

Answers:

1. a. is correct. According to a 2011 Congressional Research Service report, only 4 times: 1979, 1980, 1983 and 2008. The Senate has been more secretive, meeting in secret 56 times since 1929.

2. c is correct. The oldest request was made in 1993 to the National Archives for 1943 documents related to the Sicilian Mafia and Sicilian Separatist movements. Runner-up for the oldest outstanding request went to the Air Force, which had not responded to a 1995 request for documents relating to Pakistani surface-to-air missiles. The next four dilatory responders were the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Kennedy and Nixon presidential libraries.

3. d is correct. In 1975, Fonda filed a FOIA request with the CIA for all documents containing her name. She sued when the agency released in full only six of 252 documents. A federal district court said the agency had acted properly in withholding some of the documents for national security reasons but ordered a hearing on the others. Fonda appealed, then dropped the appeal before it was heard.

In 1976, Baez sued when the FBI, responding to a FOIA request, failed to provide copies of some of the more than 1,000 documents containing her name. A federal district judge and then an appellate court ruled for the FBI.

In the 1980s, Carole King became so enraged by the federal government's closing of a short-cut through the mountains near her Wyoming home that she not only sued under FOIA for related records under the FOIA, but she also brought a gun into the U.S. Attorney's Office to press her case.

4. d is correct. 200 years. The Swedish legislature adopted its law in 1766. Congress acted in 1966.