The Drug War Exception to the Freedom of Information Act

In the face of a lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Education has backed down from its insistence that Students for Sensible Drug Policy pay a fee of more than $4,000 for a state-by-state breakdown of data on students denied financial aid because of drug convictions. Under the Freedom of Information Act, such fees are supposed to be waived when the information sought is in the public interest. The Education Department said it wasn't, because SSDP's real goal is to legalize drugs so it can get rich by selling them.