Celebrating a decade of Foilies awards – a look back at 10 years of obstruction.

IN THE YEAR 2015, we witnessed the launch of OpenAI, a debate over the color of a dress going viral, and a Supreme Court decision that same-sex couples have the right to get married. It was also the year that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) first published The Foilies.

A lot has changed over the last decade, but one thing that hasn’t is the steady flow of attempts by authorities to avoid their legal and ethical obligations to be open and accountable. Sometimes, these cases are intentional, but just as often, they are due to incompetence or straight-up half-assedness. In addition to this year’s winners, we revisit some of the most memorable awards from the past 10 years in this anniversary issue.

The Most Infuriating FOIA Fee: U.S. Department of Defense (2016)

Under FOIA, federal agencies are able to charge “reasonable” fees for producing copies of records. But sometimes agencies fabricate enormous price tags to pressure the requester to drop the query.

In 2015, Martin Peck asked the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to disclose the number of “HotPlug” devices (tools used to preserve data on seized computers) it had purchased. The DOD said it would cost $660 million and 15 million labor hours (over 1,712 years), because its document system wasn’t searchable by keyword, and staff would have to comb through 30 million contracts by hand.

The Most Ridiculous Redaction: Federal Bureau of Investigation (2015)

Brad Heath, who in 2014 was a reporter at USA Today, got a tip that a shady figure had possibly attended an FBI retirement party. So he filed a request for the guest list and pictures taken at the event. In response, the FBI sent a series of surreal photos of the attendees, hugging, toasting and posing awkwardly, but all with polygonal redactions covering their faces like some sort of mutant, Minecraft family reunion.

The Most Reprehensible Reprisal Against a Requester: White Castle, Louisiana (2017)

Chris Nakamoto, at the time a reporter for WBRZ, filed a public records request to probe the White Castle mayor’s salary. But when he went down to check on some of the missing records, he was handcuffed, placed in a holding cell, and charged with the crime of “remaining after being forbidden.”

He was summoned to appear before the “Mayor’s Court” in a judicial proceeding – presided over by none other than the same mayor he was investigating. The charges were dropped two months later.