No one knows how the Trump Administration will tackle a major piece of unfinished business from the Obama Administration, the fate of the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Until that becomes clearer, litigation involving the handling of their eight-year-old conservatorship under the auspices of the federal government will continue to play out in court.

Last month, Judge Margaret Sweeney of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims issued a stunning and sweeping rebuke of the federal government's dogged efforts to wall off thousands of documents related to the conservatorship. Her meticulous and painstaking reasoning affirms the broader principle of the public's right to know about government machinations. As she put it "(t)he 'public's right to know' is a basic (tenet) of our democracy."

Citation
Saikrishna Prakash, Another Sweeping Rebuke of Government Secrecy, Investor’s Business Daily (November 22, 2016).
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