Terry Mutchler

Secrets of Transparency

Starting this column with the words maritime lawyer and raw sugar might mistakenly lead the reader to believe I'm writing about a lawyer and a friend of Stormy Daniels.

However, raw sugar, coconuts and rubber are the little-known originators of the Freedom of Information Act, the federal law that governs the release of public records.

Mark P. Schlefer, a Washington, D.C. maritime and shipping lawyer, represented the Pacific Far East Lines, whose vessels sailed through Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. The ships loaded coconuts, raw sugar and rubber in the 1950s and 1960s. The company wanted to add to its route the Mariana Islands, a crescent-shaped archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean that form the U.S. Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. The better known of islands is Guam, a U.S. territory.