Freedom of Information Act: Volume 1 by LandMark Publications

THIS CASEBOOK contains a selection of U. S. Court of Appeals decisions that analyze and interpret provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Volume 1 of the casebook covers the District of Columbia Circuit. * * * Congress enacted the Freedom of Information Act in 1976 to "pierce the veil of administrative secrecy and to open agency action to the light of public scrutiny[.]" Department of the Air Force v. Rose, 425 U.S. 352, 361, 96 S.Ct. 1592, 48 L.Ed.2d 11 (1976) (citation omitted). The law generally commands that government agencies, "upon any request for records * * * shall make the records promptly available to any person." 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(3). In enacting FOIA, Congress provided that agencies may only withhold information that falls within one of the Act's nine enumerated exemptions from disclosure. 5 U.S.C. § 552(b); see also Rose, 425 U.S. at 361, 96 S.Ct. 1592. Those "limited exemptions do not obscure the basic policy that disclosure, not secrecy, is the dominant objective of the Act." Rose, 425 U.S. at 361, 96 S.Ct. 1592. The burden of proving the applicability of an exemption falls on the agency. Petroleum Info. Corp. v. Department of the Interior, 976 F.2d 1429, 1433 (D.C. Cir. 1992) (quoting 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B)). Read more