Earlier today, Attorney General Eric Holder issued new FOIA guidelines.  From Department of Justice's  press release announcing the change: 

The new FOIA guidelines address both application of the presumption of disclosure and the effective administration of the FOIA across the government.  As to the presumption of disclosure, the Attorney General directs agencies not to withhold records simply because they can technically do so.  In his memo, the Attorney General encourages agencies to make discretionary disclosures of records and to release records in part whenever they cannot be released in full. 

The Attorney General also establishes a new standard for the defense of agency decisions to withhold records in response to a FOIA request.  Now, the Department will defend a denial only if the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by one of the statutory exemptions, or disclosure is prohibited by law.  Under the previous defensibility standard of the rules rescinded today, the Department had said it would defend a denial if the agency had a “sound legal basis” for its decision to withhold. 

In addition to establishing criteria governing the presumption of disclosure, the Attorney General’s FOIA guidelines emphasize that agencies must be sure to have in place effective systems for responding to requests.  In the memo, the Attorney General calls on each agency to be fully accountable for its administration of the FOIA. 

One of the most important item in the release is this line:

Today’s memo rescinds the guidelines issued on Oct. 12, 2001, by former Attorney General John Ashcroft. 

Upon reviewing Holder's memo, CREW issued the following statement:

CREW welcomes the attorney general's guidance and his command to all agencies to administer the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with a presumption of openness and disclosure. This memorandum represents a return to the core purposes of the Act, especially by declaring that FOIA's exemptions will no longer be used to prevent embarrassing disclosures, errors and failures by government officials. It is now up to each agency and department to implement the FOIA as President Obama and Attorney General Holder intend, with an emphasis on transparency and speed in responding to all FOIA requests. We trust that upon re-examining some of the most pernicious FOIA decisions of the last eight years, this administration will agree the public has a right to know the true facts behind some of the most controversial decisions of the Bush administration and will resolve litigation in those cases by disclosing requested records.