In the first several weeks of his administration, President Obama has quickly reversed course on some of the worst directions of the Bush administration. He has announced plans to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, lift the ban on federally funded stem cell research, remove the abortion gag order on family planning agencies working overseas and fix a last-minute weakening of the Endangered Species Act.

Last week, quietly, Obama's attorney general announced an equally welcome change: Federal government agency records will now be presumed public.

Sounds like common sense - not to mention the law of the land - no? But to order such a directive, Eric Holder had to expressly rescind a Bush administration standard that favored withholding information from the public. He also went one step further: Federal agencies, he said, should "readily and systematically post information online in advance of any public request."

At issue is the federal Freedom of Information Act, the law that gives journalists, researchers and everyone else an up-close view of their government.

Holder said that government bureaucrats should no longer withhold information simply because they may do so legally. And, he said, if a government agency determines it cannot legally make full disclosure of a requested record, it must consider whether it can make partial disclosure.

According to Holder's new order, his office will only defend agency denials of requests for information under the FOIA if any agency "reasonably foresees that the disclosure would harm an interest" protected by one of the exemptions to release or if it is prohibited by law. He said agencies must be "fully accountable" for administering FOIA and that FOIA professionals should have the "full support" from their agencies and the tools they need to respond promptly and efficiently to records requests.

All of this contradicts the spirit and the marching orders contained in Bush-era guidelines, which said the Justice Department would defend all decisions to withhold records "unless they lack a sound legal basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect other important records."

Obama disagreed with both the spirit and the practice of the previous administration's FOIA rules. "Unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles have no place in the new era of open government that the president has proclaimed," Holder said.

We shall see. Obama has big plans that will affect everything, including the environment, health care, education and the economy. Openness in government has never been more crucial. Here's hoping his administration will live up to the president's goals.