Next Tuesday is James Madison’s birthday and National Freedom of Information Act Day, the high point of Sunshine Week celebrations of the public’s right to know. Madison enshrined that right with the First Amendment’s guarantee of an independent press. President Obama could use the occasion to strike a major blow for transparency with one simple directive: He could tell the Federal Housing Finance Agency to drop its nonsensical claim that it doesn’t have to make public Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac documents, especially those concerning federal campaign contributions made on behalf of the two agencies in the years leading to the economic meltdown of 2008.

Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act suit last August after FHFA refused the watchdog group’s request for such documents. Officials at FHFA acknowledged having control of such documents but said they weren’t obligated under the FOIA to release them. Fannie and Freddie were established as semi-independent government-supported entities. But they went under FHFA control after taxpayers had to bail them out. It is estimated that taxpayers are on the hook for at least $5.4 trillion in liabilities that resulted from bad mortgage investments by Fannie and Freddie.