OK, Who Messed With Texas?

You could have knocked me over with a carbon nanotube (and a small one, at that): apparently, Texas has its own version of the federal Freedom of Information Act, called the Texas Public Information Act. And not only that, but it contains this wondrous piece of prose:

The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created. (§ 552.001)

It will be no surprise that the original law was passed in 1973; it may be a surprise that it actually was expanded in 1995 – to include electronic information – when you know who was governor.