In August 2012, the conservative watchdog group Landmark Legal Foundation made a Freedom of Information Act request for records at the Environmental Protection Agency — specifically seeking records of any efforts to slow down the issue of new regulations until after the 2012 election.

FOIA requests are supposed to be acknowledged and complied with very promptly. In this case, EPA bureaucrats did precisely what the Freedom of Information Act is intended to prevent — they slow-walked Landmark’s request past the 2012 elections, so that voters could not use the information to make their decision. They used one form of government opacity (foot-dragging) to protect another (a secretive regulatory process).