Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/18-481_5426.pdf
Page Number: 5.0

2  FOOD MARKETING INSTITUTE v. ARGUS LEADER MEDIA 

Opinion of the Court 

administers  the  national  food-stamp  program,  known  as 
the  Supplemental  Nutrition  Assistance  Program.    Argus
Leader  asked  the  USDA  for  the  names  and  addresses  of 
all retail stores that participate in SNAP and each store’s
annual  SNAP  redemption  data  from  fiscal  years  2005  to 
2010,  which  we  refer  to  as  “store-level  SNAP  data.”    The 
USDA  tried  to  meet  the  paper  halfway.  It  released  the 
names  and  addresses  of  the  participating  stores  but 
declined  to  disclose  the  requested  store-level  SNAP  data. 
As relevant here, the USDA invoked FOIA’s Exemption 4, 
which  shields 
“trade  secrets  and 
commercial  or  financial  information  obtained  from  a 
person  and  privileged  or  confidential.” 
5  U. S. C. 
§552(b)(4).

from  disclosure 

Unsatisfied  by  the  agency’s  disclosure,  Argus  sued  the 
USDA in federal court to compel release of the store-level
SNAP  data.    Like  several  other  courts  of  appeals,  the
Eighth Circuit has engrafted onto Exemption 4 a so-called 
“competitive  harm” 
test,  under  which  commercial 
information  cannot  be  deemed  “confidential”  unless 
disclosure  is  “likely  . . .  to  cause  substantial  harm  to  the 
competitive  position  of  the  person  from  whom  the 
information was obtained.”  Argus Leader Media v. United 
States  Dept.  of  Agriculture,  889  F.  3d  914,  915  (2018)
(internal  quotation  marks  omitted).    So  the  district  court 
held  a  two-day  bench  trial  to  determine  whether 
disclosure  of  the  store-level  SNAP  data  would  cause 
substantial competitive harm to participating retailers. 

At trial, witnesses for the USDA testified that retailers 
closely  guard  store-level  SNAP  data  and  that  disclosure 
would  threaten  stores’  competitive  positions. 
They
explained  that  retailers  use  models  of  consumer  behavior 
to  help  choose  new  store  locations  and  to  plan  sales
strategies. 
Competitors’  estimated  sales  volumes 
represent  an  important  component  of  these  models  and
can be time consuming and expensive to generate.  And a