Opinion ID: 375887
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Standard as to What Is an Agency Record

Text: 6 The straightforward question of who has physical possession of documents has not sufficed, in cases before this court, to define whether documents are agency records. 5 A simple possession standard would permit agencies to insulate their activities from FOIA disclosure by farming out operations to outside contractors. It would also create a severe problem whenever confidential congressional documents or materials from the President's immediate staff come into the possession of an agency, as may occur when Congress oversees and supervises an agency. A standard that automatically made such records subject to FOIA disclosure as soon as they are transferred to agency hands would seriously impair Congress's oversight role. 6 7 Recognizing these difficulties, this court has adopted a standard more consistent with the intent and general framework of the FOIA disclosure system. Our opinion in Goland v. Central Intelligence Agency 7 examined this issue in the context of a FOIA request for a congressional document that was in the hands of an agency. We adopted a standard of control rather than possession: whether under all the facts of the case the document has passed from the control of Congress and become property subject to the free disposition of the agency with which the document resides. 8 Under the Goland standard, the court looks at the circumstances under which the document was generated whether it was generated by a non-agency, and how, and why and at the non-agency's intent in transferring the document to the agency. In Goland, Congress's actions generating the document during an executive session of a committee, marking the document Secret, and transferring it to the CIA solely for internal reference purposes, showed that Congress intended to refrain effective control while the document was in agency hands. 9 8 Goland follows the structure and intent of the FOIA by determining what entity controls the document and deciding whether that entity is within the category of agency defined by the Act. An earlier decision of this court pursued a similar approach, inquiring whether the generation of a document by consultants of the Office of Science and Technology brought it within control of that Office so as to make it a record, and whether that Office was an agency or rather a part of the President's staff. 10 In a more recent case we have again examined whether an agency controlled the documents of an outside entity, in the sense of being involved in the core planning or execution of a program, such as to make the documents agency records within the FOIA. 11