Opinion ID: 373899
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Legal Memoranda And Exemption 5

Text: 11 The refusal of the Air Force to disclose three legal memoranda attached to its response to Shermco's protest was based on Exemption 5 of FOIA, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5): 12 inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency . . . . 13 The District Court found the Air Force memoranda to be legal opinions prepared to assist the contracting officer in making his decision awarding the overhauling contract, which would not normally have been releasable because of this exemption. 452 F.Supp. at 322. However, since, according to the District Court, the Air Force award of the contract to Tayko was a final decision, these intra-agency memoranda in defense of the bid protest became part of the basis of that decision and were releasable under NLRB v. Sears-Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 44 L.Ed.2d 29 (1975). Moreover, it was the District Court's opinion that by sending these memoranda to the GAO, the Air Force had waived its rights to assert the confidentiality of these otherwise internal staff opinions. 452 F.Supp. at 322. These memoranda had become part of the Air Force's official position against the protest by Shermco. For both reasons, these documents were deemed releasable. 14
Governmental Deliberations 15 Exemption 5 incorporates at least two 8 types of privileges traditionally available to the Government in civil litigation (i) the attorney-client and attorney work-product privileges 9 and (ii) the executive privilege for information relating to governmental deliberations. NLRB v. Sears Roebuck & Co., supra, 421 U.S. at 149-54; 95 S.Ct. at 1515-1518, 44 L.Ed.2d at 46-49. 16 The executive privilege grew out of a need to protect the governmental decision-making process by assuring those persons, both inside and outside the decision-making agency, who offer information and opinions to the Government that their communications will be kept in confidence. NLRB v. Sears, supra, 421 U.S. at 151-52, 95 S.Ct. 1516-1517, 44 L.Ed.2d 47-48. See Mead Data Central, Inc. v. United States Department of Air Force, 184 U.S.App.D.C. 213, 225-226, n. 28, 566 F.2d 242, 254-55, n. 28 (D.C. Cir. 1977). For this reason, the Supreme Court has distinguished between pre-decisional communications which are exempt from disclosure and post-decisional communications which are not. NLRB v. Sears, 421 U.S. at 152-53, 95 S.Ct. at 1517, 44 L.Ed.2d at 48-49; Renegotiation Board v. Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp., 421 U.S. 168, 184, 95 S.Ct. 1491, 1500; 44 L.Ed.2d 57, 71 (1975). See Audio Technical Service v. Army, supra. Disclosure of pre-decisional communications presents more danger that governmental sources of information and advice will be inhibited. Besides, there is less public concern for this information, whereas the public is vitally interested in learning an agency's reasons for a final decision which has the effect of law. NLRB v. Sears, supra, 421 U.S. at 151-52, 95 S.Ct. at 1516-1517, 44 L.Ed.2d at 47-48. 17 In Sears, the Supreme Court emphasized that this distinction is supported by FOIA itself 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2)(A) 10 which requires the disclosure of all final agency opinions. 421 U.S. at 153, 95 S.Ct. at 1517, 44 L.Ed.2d at 49. Thus, the Supreme Court concluded that if an advisory opinion of an agency staff member is expressly incorporated into a final agency decision, the policy considerations supporting the nondisclosure of this type of pre-decisional communication are no longer operable. Once the agency adopts its employee's advice as its own, the agency will defend its employee and he need no longer be concerned with adverse consequences if his communication becomes a matter of public record. Moreover, his advice, as part of a final agency opinion, has now become a matter of more profound public interest. 421 U.S. at 161, 95 U.S. at 1521, 44 L.Ed.2d at 53. Thus, in effect, what was once a pre-decisional communication becomes post-decisional and is no longer exempt from disclosure under Exemption 5. 18 Grumman, supra, 421 U.S. at 184, 95 S.Ct. at 1500, 44 L.Ed.2d at 71, lists the criteria for identifying a post-decisional communication: (i) The decision must, of course, be final. (ii) The agency of which the information is demanded must possess the power to make the final decision into which the pre-decisional information is incorporated. (iii) Finally, the information must be adopted as part of the agency's reasoning for its decision. Because the Grumman decision relied on Sears, its companion case, we believe these criteria also should apply to the Sears hybrid, the pre-decisional communication turned post-decisional. With respect to the third criterion, Sears goes even further then Grumman and holds that the hybrid, to become a post-decisional communication, must be expressly adopt(ed) or incorporate(d) by reference into the final opinion. 421 U.S. at 161, 95 S.Ct. at 1521-1522, 44 L.Ed.2d at 53. 19 In holding that the three legal memoranda submitted to the GAO by the Air Force did not fall within Exemption 5, the District Court followed Sears but then held that these once pre-decisional memoranda, by being submitted to the GAO in connection with the Shermco protest, were incorporated into the Air Force's final decision to award the contract to Tayko, and therefore had become post-decisional. 20 In the leap from Sears to this case we find this conclusion unacceptable for two reasons. First, as we stated earlier in this opinion, the proposed award of the contract to Tayko was not the final opinion of the Air Force. 11 Because the decision was not yet final, all the considerations which support the nondisclosure of pre-decisional communications were still in effect, as was Exemption 5. Second, even if it were a final decision, these memoranda were not expressly incorporated by reference into the opinion. They had been used by the Air Force internally in reaching their initial conclusion that Tayko was the lowest bidder, and they were produced to the GAO in aid of their defense against Shermco's protest, but they were never attached to any formal written decision by the Air Force. 21
22 The District Court also held that, by disclosing these memoranda to the GAO, the Air Force waived its rights to claim Exemption 5. We will begin by stating that the mere fact that one federal agency releases intra-agency communications to another federal agency cannot by itself imply the waiver of Exemption 5, which explicitly applies to inter-agency, as well as intra-agency, memoranda. 23 Waiver occurs when an agency makes its information more broadcast than is allowed by its own regulations, Cooper v. Department of Navy, 594 F.2d 484 (5th Cir. 1979), but it does not occur when an agency whose action is being reviewed forwards to the reviewing agency legal memoranda in support of its position: 24 By including Inter-Agency memoranda in Exemption 5, Congress plainly intended to permit one agency possessing decisional authority to obtain written recommendations and advice from a separate agency not possessing such decisional authority without requiring that the advice be any more disclosable than similar advice received from within the agency. 25 Grumman, supra, 421 U.S. at 188, 95 S.Ct. at 1502, 44 L.Ed.2d at 73. In reviewing the Air Force's preliminary decision to award this contract to Tayko, the GAO needed and was entitled to the legal and technical advice of both parties. The Air Force should be allowed to supply this information without running the risk of waiving Exemption 5. The forwarding of these memoranda to the GAO was not a broadcast disclosure by the Air Force. It was no more than the submission of the agency's legal opinion in defense of a bid protest. There was thus no waiver of Exemption 5. 26 In sum, we hold that the Air Force's notice to Shermco was a proposed, and not a final, award of the contract to Tayko. There is a possibility that, if the GAO or its successor under the new law, the SBA, upholds the protest, that bidding will be reopened. All the policy reasons for exempting from disclosure both the Tayko cost proposals and the legal memoranda of the Air Force still operate to make this information immune from disclosure within the language of Exemptions 4 and 5. 12 Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the District Court and remand this cause with orders to enter judgment in favor of the Appellant Air Force. 27 REVERSED and REMANDED.