[8864] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: JURIS - DOJ rejects TAP FOIA Request (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (J. Timothy Sprehe)
Wed Dec 8 16:23:52 1993
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.85.9312061339.A24713-0100000@essential>
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 93 10:45:06 -0400
To: "James Love" <love@essential.org>
Cc: "com-priv" <com-priv@psi.com>
From: "J. Timothy Sprehe" <p00269@psilink.com>
Taxpayer Assets Project is still not addressing a fundamental question:
Why should the Justice Department pay for TAP or anyone else to have a
free (or heavily subsidized) lunch in computer assisted legal research
(CALR)?
Nowhere is it written in law or policy that the mission of the Justice
Department shall be to provide low cost CALR services to the public.
Justice is the nation's lawyer, whose mission, according to the _U.S.
Government Manual_, is to enforce the laws, safeguard consumers, protect
citizens through law enforcement, and ensure healthy competition of
business in our free enterprise system. Love wants Justice also
to deliver low cost computerized legal information services to
the public, but the Congress has never seen fit to agree with
him.
Am I the only taxpayer who thinks that federal agencies should stick to
carrying out the functions for which they were created? that Justice has
no business providing CALR services to the public? and that the demise
of JURIS is a good thing for the taxpayer?
Tim Sprehe
