Opinion ID: 3172147
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The FOIA’s Disclosure Requirement

Text: The FOIA, which took effect in July 1967, establishes record retention and disclosure requirements for federal agencies. See 5 U.S.C. § 552. Of particular relevance here is the requirement that agencies “promptly [make] available to any person,” upon request, such reasonably described records as are not already publicly available and not subject to specific exemptions. Id. § 552(a)(3)(A); see id. § 552(b) (identifying exemptions). A person who thinks that an agency has improperly withheld records subject to FOIA disclosure may seek an order of production from a district court, which will review the matter de novo, placing the burden on the agency to defend its non‐disclosure decisions. See id. § 552(a)(4)(B). Where, as here, there is a dispute as to whether the requested entity is an agency, the burden on that preliminary legal question rests with the party seeking production. See Armstrong v. Exec. Office of the President, 90 F.3d 553, 565 (D.C. Cir. 1996).1 1 Plaintiff has acknowledged that “many, if not all,” of the records it demands from the NSC may be subject to a FOIA disclosure exemption. Appellant’s Br. 53; see, e.g., 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(1) (exemption for classified records); id. § 552(b)(5) (exemption for records of deliberative process); see also Douglas Cox & Ramzi Kassem, Off the Record: The National Security Council, Drone Killings, and Historical Accountability, 31 Yale J. on Reg. 363, 391 (2014). The task of deciding 4