24 years and counting

Seth Rosenfeld's Freedom of Information Act request for FBI documents was filed in 1981. The San Francisco Chronicle reporter is still waiting, after three lawsuits, orders to release the records from five federal judges, and delivery of more than 200,000 pages of documents. In 2002, says an AP story, Rosenfeld used the documents to write an award-winning package of stories describing how the FBI campaigned in the 1950s and '60s to curb the Free Speech Movement at the University of California-Berkeley and plotted to oust UC President Clark Kerr. There are 17,000 pages to go, making Rosenfeld's the oldest FOIA request on record. The FBI won't talk about it, and replies to AP with this gem: "Mr. Rosenfeld could file a request to get further information about his request."