President Bush says he believes in open government, but critics say his administration has gone to unusual lengths to control and limit access to information. Government restrictions on information increased dramatically after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The administration says homeland security concerns justify clamping down on public access to information, but open-government advocates say the policies dampen public debate, diminish government accountability and actually hamper efforts to protect the United States. Many of the secrecy disputes have spawned court fights, most of them won by the administration. Courts also have generally appeared uninterested in enforcing the federal Freedom of Information Act, prompting some in Congress to try to strengthen the 1966 law. Without it, they argue, such scandals as the abuse of detainees held by the United States at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison might never have come to light.

Kenneth Jost is Supreme Court editor, CQ Press; associate editor, CQ Researcher; and author of The Supreme Court Yearbook since the 1992-1993 edition.