d it's ruling the district court failed to recognize the obligation of the government to refrain from withholding information under the freedom of information act in the words of president obama withholding it merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure because errors and failures but be revealed or because of speculative or abstract  this obligation first expressed at those words by president obama in a member and to the heads of executive departments his words were repeated it reports by the legislative committees recommended passages of supper subsequent amendments to the freedom of information act and in fact the committee report state that the legislation had been intended simply to c the the president's directives the committee reports also target the history of abuse by government agencies of the so called litigation exceptions such as attorney work product these exceptions were specifically it vote by the government to withhold information in this case and for major part of the lower courts determination the expectations of the president and congress must be respected regardless of whether the president's leg which is specifically written into the statute or otherwise those expressions have no purpose and no function at all i've submitted that the actions of the department of justice and the consequences described in this case are extraordinary indeed you  addressed by the president and congress i kin a really get in the the list of examples that i included in the reply brief if that's useful  attorney client work product exemption that you made arguments about all three it's the absence of the factors that i mentioned that president obama pointed out in that the the congress  included in this reason for the for passing the laws in the absence of those i think the government had every right to exercise those exceptions which claim the exemptions i don't i'm not saying that they were correct but i think that they certainly have the right to do so challenging the conduct of the search and go not at all i just believe that the factors that were discussed recognized by obama and the committees of override those exemptions or at least make it inappropriate to use those exceptions and i think the examples of of the case and its consequences  very strongly support that those those variations from the exceptions are appropriate thank you for your argument it please the court peter arnell if u s attorney's office southern district of new york for the government the department of justice properly withheld three types of records related to plaintiff's criminal prosecution as we explained both  in the declaration of david which in ski which was filed on the district court docket we withheld some materials under exemption three because that would violate grand jury secrecy some materials under exemption five because they primarily  consisted of internal communications and notes from prosecutors and other law enforcement officers about a then pending criminal investigation and prosecution and under exemptions six and seven see witness interview notes that would have revealed persons of interest to a law enforcement proceeding and also other personal details but the justifications are incorporated into the twenty sixteen amendments to the freedom of information act but as an initial matter in a presidential memorandum it's accompanying the improvement act so to be clear the make mention of president obama's statements but there's no text in the amendments that incorporates some sort of new standard on these exemptions i've reviewed the twenty sixteen amendments and to my not what we relied on in this case and in any event it's twenty five years and it's only been about twelve years since the events of this case and besides the twenty sixteen amendments there's also case law including from the supreme court the f t c versus girl your case the makes clear that case by case exceptions to for exemptions should even if they exist in ordinary civil litigation  it would not be a good use of government resources to turn four cases into effectively collateral litigation and other issues and so for that reason there are those case by case exceptions should not be applied in in the fourth context so unless the court has further questions the government respectfully will rest on our papers and requests that the district court's judgment be affirmed thank you that's the last case on the calendar this morning so i will ask the clerk to a