Freedom of Information Act

THIS CASEBOOK contains a selection of U. S. Court of Appeals decisions that analyze, interpret and apply provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Volume 1 of the casebook covers the District of Columbia Circuit and the First Circuit. * * * "The FOIA was enacted to ensure public access to a wide range of government reports and information." Rural Housing Alliance v. United States Dep't of Agriculture, 498 F.2d 73, 76 (D. C. Cir. 1974). It "was designed to pierce the veil of administrative secrecy and to open agency action to the light of public scrutiny." Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington ("CREW") v. Department of Justice, 746 F.3d 1082, 1088 (D. C. Cir. 2014) (quotation marks omitted). While transparency and government accountability are at the heart of FOIA's mandate, Congress exempted certain categories of records from disclosure to protect important governmental and private interests in confidentiality. . . . . The agency bears the burden of proving that an exemption applies. CREW, 746 F.3d at 1088. Even when an exemption applies, the agency is obligated to disclose "[a]ny reasonably segregable portion of a record" after removing the exempt material and must note the "amount of information deleted, and the exemption under which the deletion is made." 5 U. S. C. § 552(b). Bartko v. US Dept. of Justice, 898 F. 3d 51 (DC Cir. 2018)