The act does say it applies to agencies, but it defines agencies very broadly, stating that they include “any executive department…or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President).” The act lists four very specific exceptions, but none is for presidential advisory commissions. “I don’t think the commission can make a case it fits under any of” the exceptions, says Stuart Shapiro, a professor at Rutgers University who worked on PRA requests during his five years at OMB. Shapiro first argued in a July blog post that the commission’s request was illegal because it ignored the PRA.
They tore down New Brunswick’s Memorial Homes. The community survived.
As crowds cheered when the four Memorial Homes buildings collapsed into dust on Aug. 18, 2001, Linda Fogle Davis remembers crying. "They were laughing. I was crying," Davis said. "I was hurt. That was my home being demolished." Twenty-five years later, former...