Profile in Courage: Mark Schlefer

For more than 50 years, Americans have been able to keep tabs on their government and examine government documents hidden from the public view with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The process of holding the government accountable for secret programs and communications used to take skilled, time-consuming investigative journalism and an army of lawyers. Even then, success was far from guaranteed. But thanks to FOIA, and its bold creators and supporters such as Mark Schlefer, keeping the government honest has become a considerably simpler process. Through a painstaking drafting process, Schlefer helped ensure that FOIA would actually have teeth rather than serve as another layer of bureaucracy shielding the government from the public. And, for giving the American public a critical resource to fight federal overreach, the dearly departed Mark Schlefer is truly a Profile in Courage.

Even if Schlefer had never gotten himself involved in the FOIA drafting process, the late public servant would still have been a Profile in Courage. In the Second World War, Schlefer survived an astounding 36 combat missions as a bombardier-navigator. Yet, even after dealing defeat to the Nazis, the 22-year-old was denied the opportunity to partake in a glass of champagne inside of an officers’ club to celebrate Germany’s surrender in 1945. The sad reality was that, despite the promise of military meritocracy and the shared sense of purpose brought on by WWII, there would always be a small, elite group that was shielded from everyone else.

This terrible truth of an unyielding bureaucracy and hierarchy that shielded itself from accountability and transparency became all the more apparent to Schlefer after becoming a maritime lawyer representing aggrieved shipping companies in tariff disputes. The young attorney wondered why one client of his was denied permission by the U.S. Maritime Commission to take part in trade on the Mariana Islands.  He promptly asked the government agency for a rationale. But the commission unsatisfactorily replied that its tariff documentation decisions are not available to the public, regardless of the cost and inconvenience posed by said rulings. Schlefer soon learned that he was not alone in his outrage over runaway government secrecy.

A report released in 1953 by the American Society of News Editors chronicled the proliferation of federal classifications, leading to legislative efforts to hold the government accountable. These findings of runaway government secrecy resonated with Rep. John Moss (D–Calif.), who led the charge on Capitol Hill to craft a pro-transparency bill in 1966. Schlefer gladly offered his services in helping to draft the bill, which included language giving citizens the right to view federal documents unless the underlying information fell under admittedly broad exemptions. But the stakes were high and getting lawmakers to sign off on FOIA certainly wasn’t easy. This effort to enact pro-transparency legislation was happening at the height of the Cold War, and public officials were fearful that the Soviets were trying to steal secrets. Reason reporter C.J. Ciaramella notes, “Twenty-seven federal agencies testified on the proposed legislation, all of them in opposition. The Justice Department argued that the bill was unconstitutional because it would violate the separation of powers.”

Nonetheless, Rep. Moss helped shepherd the legislation through the House while Schlefer succeeded in convincing the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to give the bill a chance. Their tireless efforts paved the way for Congressional passage and an eventual signature from then-President Lyndon Johnson.

The FOIA process, of course, is still far from perfect. Federal agencies readily take advantage of the large exemptions contained under the legislation and often claim that FOIA search requests are too broad to perform. Nonetheless, Schlefer’s efforts contributed greatly to the cause of transparency and opened the door to greater accountability in Washington, D.C.

The Taxpayers Protection Alliance, along with our many allies across the political spectrum, uses FOIA as a way to expose government misdeeds and corruption.  TPA doesn’t always get the information requested, but taxpayers have more insight than ever before as to how the government works as a result of the landmark law. And, the unearthing of historical documents has forced officials to acknowledge and address previous wrongs. And because this revolution would not be possible without Mark Schlefer, the late public servant is certainly a Profile in Courage.

Ross Marchand is a senior fellow at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.