We thought you should know that we received the following e-mail from the Department of Transitional Assistance on Monday:
Dear Mr. Morisy:
I am writing to inform you that certain information found on the website http://www.muckrock.com, which lists individual retailer redemptions for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is posted in violation of federal law.. [sic] This information was erroneously released by the Department of Transitional Assistance to Spare Change News. Federal law prohibits release of such information under 7 U.S.C. 2018(9)(c), and 7 CFR 278.1(q).
Failure to remove this information may result in fines or imprisonment. 7 U.S.C. 2018(9)(c) (“any person who publishes, divulges, discloses, or makes known in any manner or to any extent not authorized by Federal law (including a regulation) any information obtained under this subsection shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both).
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. If I should be addressing this communication to someone else, I would also appreciate you letting me know. Thank you.
Koren Christensen
Acting General Counsel
Department of Transitional Assistance
600 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02111
We have engaged legal counsel to advise us on this issue, and in the meantime we have not removed from our site any of the documents (here and here) provided to us by the DTA.
Nov 10, 2010 @ 11:32:08
Well, this actually could pose a problem for you. Had a federal agency released the records to you, even mistakenly, then you could clearly say that the documents’ release was authorized by federal law (in this case, FOIA). However, it appears that a STATE agency released FEDERAL records to you that they were not supposed to. A state government cannot override a federal law, and now you have a situation where the state official who gave you the records broke the law by giving them to you, but you are also arguably breaking the law by publishing them, since you were not authorized to by the federal government.
You can always fall back on the First Amendment, but if they decide to take this to court you’re going to have to argue that 7 U.S.C. 2018(c) is unconstitutional, which is always a difficult argument to make
Food Stamp Data gets MuckRock into hot water « The Litterbox
Nov 11, 2010 @ 10:59:32
Nov 11, 2010 @ 11:03:34
In recent months, Federal Courts across the country have struck down provisions of the US Code and Code of Federal Regulations which purport to legally require agencies and regular citizens from publishing data acquired thru legal means, ie, FOIA requests.
I support you in your efforts to seek and publish what should be, and is, public data.
Regards -
Sauerkraut at The Litterbox blog
Nov 11, 2010 @ 14:04:30
this calls for a torrent!
it’s also quite a big example of legal censorship attempts which will basically fail. I’m sure this information could accidentally get shared to some sharing sites.
Massachusetts Threatens Website For Publishing Info It Gave The Site After A FOIA Request - TechRunner
Nov 11, 2010 @ 23:38:10
A big thank you to Robert Bertsche and the Online Media Legal Network
Nov 12, 2010 @ 03:35:32
My Take on the MuckRock Data Fiasco | Government in Action
Nov 12, 2010 @ 11:01:21
Nov 12, 2010 @ 16:22:27
This is a real shame. WikiLeaks likely wouldn’t have a problem publishing this information.
Nov 13, 2010 @ 08:25:26
I really can’t see why they have a problem with the release of information. It really just shows how many more people are having a hard time surviving in today’s economy. My only concern is that people are not aware of how/why F.S. money gets spent in places like Salvation Army and Mental Health agencies. I know or at least have a good idea why, but others will turn this lack of understanding into a rant against people receiving F.S. like when they say people on welfare spend all their money on booze and lottery tickets pure crap.
Nov 15, 2010 @ 16:32:43
They are against you publishing the file not because it tells you personal information about these people, but because it’s helps to provide demographics.
Behind the scenes of SNAP-gate, as told by a FOI request
Dec 01, 2010 @ 14:55:07