After reviewing the full text, Mark Thompson is clearly right and I was reading the wrong section of the law. Apologies. But I think Mark over-reaches a little when he says that Obama has gone above the law in doing this.
He got a rare waiver, which the law allows. A waiver from the relevant rule is not acting above the law; it is lawfully asking to be exempt from the general rule for special reasons:
To protect the integrity of vital statistics records, to ensure their proper use, and to ensure the efficient and proper administration of the vital statistics system, it shall be unlawful for any person to permit inspection of, or to disclose information contained in vital statistics records, or to copy or issue a copy of all or part of any such record, except as authorized by this part or by rules adopted by the department of health.
He could have asked for that at any time. And should have, in my view, however ugly, dumb and bigoted those requesting total transparency may be. You don’t have to be president. And these are the consequences. I’d rather live in a society which expects such transparency when it comes to documents pertinent to public controversy, than one in which deference and secrecy are the rule.
The Dish 