Source: https://openjurist.org/565/f2d/778/merrill-v-federal-open-market-committee-of-federal-reserve-system
Timestamp: 2017-11-18 14:14:57
Document Index: 651396753

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 552', '§ 552']

565 F. 2d 778 - Merrill v. Federal Open Market Committee of Federal Reserve System
565 F2d 778 Merrill v. Federal Open Market Committee of Federal Reserve System
565 F.2d 778
David R. MERRILL et al.
FEDERAL OPEN MARKET COMMITTEE OF the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM,
Exemption 5 of FOIA protects from mandatory disclosure "intra-agency memorandums . . . which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency." This exemption incorporates the civil discovery law: if the document sought would be routinely available to a party in civil discovery, the fifth exemption will not protect it from prompt mandatory disclosure. Environmental Protection Agency v. Mink, 410 U.S. 73, 85-86, 93 S.Ct. 827, 35 L.Ed.2d 119 (1973). If a document is, however, privileged from civil discovery, it is exempted from mandatory disclosure under FOIA even if, in a particular case, a party in litigation could overcome the privilege by a showing of need. NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 149 n. 16, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 44 L.Ed.2d 29 (1975).
This exemption incorporates the familiar "executive" privilege attaching to predecisional communications which reflect the policymakers' deliberative processes. Id. at 150-51, 95 S.Ct. 1504. This privilege is based on the view that the quality of a decision would be adversely affected if deliberative processes were exposed to public view: such exposure would inhibit discussions by policymakers and their advisors. Id. See also Environmental Protection Agency v. Mink, supra, at 87, 89, 93 S.Ct. 827.
There does exist a governmental privilege attaching to statements given by individuals to the government on a promise of confidentiality, which statements are then used by the government in arriving at policy. See, e. g., Machin v. Zuckert, 114 U.S.App.D.C. 335, 316 F.2d 336 (1963) cert. denied, 375 U.S. 896, 84 S.Ct. 172, 11 L.Ed.2d 124 (1963).21 This privilege is based upon the need for the government to obtain otherwise unavailable information in order to discharge properly its responsibility to make policy decisions. See, e. g., Brockway v. Department of the Air Force, 518 F.2d 1184, 1194 (8th Cir. 1975). Efficient fact-gathering is an essential first step in the decisionmaking process. The privilege for witnesses rests on the recognition that the quality of that process as well as the decision reached is impoverished as access to relevant facts decreases.22 This privilege cannot be extended to reach the instant situation, because neither the fact-gathering ability nor the decisionmaking process of FOMC would be undercut by disclosure of these final policy decisions.
FOMC also seeks to bring the instructions contained in the Domestic Policy Directives and the tolerance ranges under Exemption 5 by claiming that this information would fall within the privilege accorded confidential commercial information under F.R.Civ.P. 26(c)(7). However, appellant fails to present a single case where information generated by the government fell within this privilege. At most, only a rough analogy could be drawn between commercial information, protected for reasons of equity in the private sector, and the instruction sought here. In view of our mandate to implement the Act's general philosophy of full agency disclosure unless information is exempt under clearly delineated statutory language," S.Rep. No. 813, 89th Cong., 1st Sess. 3 (1965), we decline to create, by rough analogy, a privilege not in existence at the time FOIA was enacted, and then incorporate this privilege into an exception to the overriding command of that Act.
The District Court also held that the materials sought here do not fall within § 552(b)(2), exempting material "related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency." This finding is not challenged on appeal
The District Court's ruling with respect to the requested Memoranda of Discussion (now discontinued, see note 6 supra ) is not at issue in this appeal. The court held that appellee was entitled to "reasonably segregable factual portions" of these documents under 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5). The court has not yet ruled on the memoranda which have been submitted to it for in camera inspection pursuant to this provision
See 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2): "Each agency, in accordance with published rules, shall make available for public inspection and copying * * * (B) those statements of policy and interpretations which have been adopted by the agency and are not published in the Federal Register; * * * unless the materials are promptly published and copies offered for sale." Obviously, if the materials are not "promptly published" they must be "promptly" made available for inspection and copying. The concept of "promptly available" also appears in 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(C). See also 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(D), giving these cases "precedence on the docket" in the District Court
Nor can can it be said that these documents are not "adopted" until executed because FOMC can amend them between meetings through consultations with the Manager. To the extent that deliberative communications are exchanged after the vote at the meeting and prior to a new decision which amends the previous vote, they would fall within Exemption 5. However, that a new policy can supersede a prior policy before the latter is executed does not mean that the original policy decision voted by an agency is predecisional. The decision is already reached and its disclosure "poses a negligible risk of denying to agency decisionmakers the uninhibited advice which is so important to agency decisions." NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., supra at 152 n.19, 95 S.Ct. at 1517 (1975)
FOIA requires that "statements of general policy" adopted by the agency be published in the Federal Register, 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(1)(D), and that "statements of policy" not published be made available for public inspection and copying, id. § 552(a)(2)(B). Our conclusion that the materials in dispute in this case represent effective policy decisions not only brings them within the general disclosure requirements of FOIA, as appellant concedes, see Memorandum Opinion at 10 n.16, but also makes the executive privilege aspect of Exemption 5 unavailable. This conclusion does not rest on the assumption that Exemption 5 can never apply to materials otherwise subject to disclosure under § 552(a)(1)(D) or § 552(a)(2)(B). First, the executive, or deliberative process, privilege is not the only civil discovery privilege incorporated by Exemption 5, see, e. g., NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., supra at 159-60, 95 S.Ct. 1504 (exemption through incorporation of attorney's work product privilege in Exemption 5). Second, this privilege would be available even to policy statements where it can be shown that these meet the requirements for application of the executive privilege. Admittedly, it is difficult to conceive of a statement which is simultaneously a policy adopted by an agency and a predecisional communication made as part of the deliberative process. Even if the deliberative process privilege incorporated by Exemption 5 can never operate to exempt statements of effective agency policy, as the District Court apparently concluded, see Memorandum Opinion at 16 ("Directives are not exempt from FOIA but are statements of general policy within the meaning of subsection (a)(1)(d)"), and as the Supreme Court has suggested, see citations in note 17 infra, it can still operate to exempt materials otherwise subject to disclosure under other provisions of FOIA
But see NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., supra at 153, 95 S.Ct. at 1518 ("We should be reluctant . . . to construe Exemption 5 to apply to documents described in 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2)."); Renegotiation Board v. Grumman Aircraft, 421 U.S. 168, 186-88, 95 S.Ct. 1491, 44 L.Ed.2d 57 (1975) (indicating that opinion within the deliberative process exemption cannot qualify as "final opinion" under § 552(a)(2)(A))
It is an open question whether Exemption 5 was intended to incorporate all common law privileges. We note that several of these privileges are included in other exemptions to the Act. See, e. g., 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7) (privilege for investigatory files). The Supreme Court concluded that the exemption extended to the deliberative privilege and the attorney's work product privilege only after satisfying itself that these privileges were in the Congressional contemplation. NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., supra at 150, 154, 95 S.Ct. 1504 (1975). We need not reach what further privileges Exemption 5 embraces in view of our conclusion that no established privilege would encompass the materials in dispute here, and that therefore Congress could not have intended their exemption
Appellant cites language in Machin that disclosure of the material in that case "would hamper the efficient operation of an important Government program", 114 U.S.App.D.C. at 338, 316 F.2d at 339, as support for its contention that an "official information" privilege should be found to encompass the material in dispute in this case. We decline to transform such dictum into precedent for the existence of a broad rule that any information, disclosure of which might impede a particular government program, is "normally privileged in the civil discovery context; " NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., supra at 149, 95 S.Ct. at 1515-16
See Capitol Vending Co. v. Baker, 35 F.R.D. 510 (D.D.C.1964) (documents sought from Attorney General need not be disclosed because they related to ongoing criminal investigation)
See Campbell v. Eastland, 307 F.2d 478 (5th Cir. 1962); Rosenblatt v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 54 F.R.D. 21 (S.D.N.Y.1971)