Opinion ID: 683177
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Basis of Review

Text: 10 A district court reviews de novo an agency's decisions regarding a FOIA request. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552(a)(4)(B). As this appeal is from a grant of summary judgment, our review is de novo as well. FOIA cases typically come up on appeal in this fashion, based on the defendant agency's Vaughn affidavits and before the plaintiff has had a chance to engage in discovery. This is a peculiar posture, difficult for our adversarial system to handle. The problem goes to the very nature of these actions as petitions for the release of documents. Where material has been withheld by the government agency, the plaintiff must argue that the withholding goes beyond that allowed by the statute. But the plaintiff is handicapped in this endeavor by the fact that only the agency truly knows the content of the withheld material. See Vaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d at 823-24; McDonnell v. United States, 4 F.3d 1227, 1241 (3d Cir.1993); Wiener v. F.B.I., 943 F.2d 972, 977 (9th Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 3013, 120 L.Ed.2d 886 (1992). Except in cases in which the court takes the entire set of responsive documents in camera, even the court does not know. 11 For several decades federal courts have struggled with how to level this unequal playing field. At the same time, courts have needed to formulate workable rules for the FOIA context. U.S. Dep't of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of Press, 489 U.S. 749, 779, 109 S.Ct. 1468, 1485, 103 L.Ed.2d 774 (1989). These concerns led to the use of Vaughn indices, described above. In this circuit, no precise form is dictated for these affidavits; any form is acceptable which enables the court to make a reasoned, independent assessment of the claim[s] of exemption. Vaughn v. United States, 936 F.2d 862, 866-67 (6th Cir.1991). 12 Plaintiff argues that the FBI's affidavits in this case are inadequate to explain the agency's exemption claims fully and insufficient to permit him to make his case that the FBI has applied the exemptions too broadly. Plaintiff also asserts that the initial sample was an insufficient factual basis upon which to consider the FBI's motion for summary judgment. We disagree. The affidavits here are of the kind that have become accepted practice and they are sufficiently detailed for this type of document. We also agree with the district court that [w]here, as here, a large number of documents have been withheld from disclosure by the government, it would not be realistically possible for the Court to review all of the documents at issue. Opinion and Order, Aug. 12, 1992, at 4. In this case, the sample included 197 pages of material and constituted 2% of the documents at issue, and under normal circumstances a random sample of this size would be sufficient to allow the court to review the government's claims of exemption. Meeropol v. Meese, 790 F.2d 942, 958 (D.C.Cir.1986) (approving use of sample consisting of 1% of documents); Weisberg v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 745 F.2d 1476, 1490 (D.C.Cir.1984) (approving sample of 1/2%). 13 Our procedural inquiry does not end here, however. Use of Vaughn affidavits is normal procedure in FOIA cases because (1) detailed description of material withheld could reveal exactly what the agency may be entitled or required to withhold; and (2) agency actions and affidavits are normally entitled to a presumption of good faith. U.S. Dep't of State v. Ray, 502 U.S. 164, ----, 112 S.Ct. 541, 550, 116 L.Ed.2d 526 (1991). This presumption may be overcome where there is evidence of bad faith in the agency's handling of the FOIA request. Even where there is no evidence that the agency acted in bad faith with regard to the FOIA action itself there may be evidence of bad faith or illegality with regard to the underlying activities which generated the documents at issue. Where such evidence is strong, it would be an abdication of the court's responsibility to treat the case in the standard way and grant summary judgment on the basis of Vaughn affidavits alone. It would risk straining the public's ability to believe--not to mention the plaintiff's--that the courts are neutral arbiters of disputes whose procedures are designed to produce justice out of the clash of adversarial arguments. 14 The instant case presents such evidence. COINTELPRO went beyond the detection and prevention of criminal activity; the program's infringements of civil liberties seem well documented; and because the FBI worked closely with local law enforcement and supplied the key prosecution witness, the program is tied to the tainted prosecution of plaintiff for murder. This does not prove that the FBI acted in bad faith with regard to the FOIA request, but it does mean that the courts of this circuit should not process this case in the same manner as they would a request for documents regarding a routine FBI investigation. 15 FOIA gives a district court the power to take documents in camera. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552(a)(4)(B). While it is not erroneous for a district court to decline to do so where other evidence provides adequate detail and justification, Vaughn v. United States, 936 F.2d at 869, in camera review is called for in certain circumstances: 16 [T]he decision to exercise a court's discretion to review material in camera ultimately involves consideration of the following factors: 1) judicial economy--every court on record has expressed significant concern about imposing a line by line review upon trial and appellate courts in resolving FOIA requests involving hundreds or thousands of documents; 2) actual agency bad faith--where it becomes apparent that the subject matter of a request involves activities which, if disclosed, would publicly embarrass the agency or that a so-called cover up is presented, government affidavits lose credibility; 3) strong public interest--where the effect of disclosure or exemption clearly extends to the public at large, such as a request which may surface evidence of corruption in an important government function, there may be a reason to give lesser weight to factors like judicial economy; 4) the parties request in camera review--obviously the court cannot be required to conduct a review upon demand, but a request would ameliorate concern that in camera inspection was precluding vigorous adversary proceedings or that a court was stepping into an area, as national security, which is the province of the Executive. 17 Ingle v. Dep't of Justice, 698 F.2d 259, 267 (6th Cir.1983) (emphasis in original). The court also cautioned that a trial court should undertake in camera inspection only after (1) attempting to adequately resolve the matter by a Vaughn Index, (2) considering other possible procedures short of full in camera examination, and (3) allowing argument by the parties on the propriety of in camera review. Id. In the instant case all three prerequisites have been satisfied. 18 In the language of Ingle, Jones's request clearly involves activities which, if disclosed, would publicly embarrass the agency, and the effect of disclosure or exemption clearly extends to the public at large. Although this circuit has suggested that in camera review is disfavored because it circumvents the adversarial process, Vaughn v. United States, 936 F.2d at 866, we believe that it is sometimes a necessary risk. In certain circumstances the court must play a more active role because no other party or institution is available to ensure that the agency's assertions are reliable. Moreover, there is no danger in the instant case of circumventing vigorous adversary proceedings because plaintiff requested in camera inspection and defendant has always had full access to the documents at issue. Nor would in camera review have been an undue burden upon judicial resources, as the trial court had approved use of a manageable sample. As a result, the district court should not have granted summary judgment solely on the basis of the affidavits and should have conducted an in camera review of the sample. 19 At oral argument, therefore, we asked plaintiff to select roughly 350 pages from among the thousands which the FBI had redacted. When added to the original random sample, this plaintiff's choice made a total of 167 documents comprising 553 pages, which the FBI submitted to us under seal and in unredacted form for our in camera examination. 5 The final sample represents more than five per cent of the total document pool, whether measured in documents or in pages, and constitutes a more than adequate sample of a document pool this large. With this augmented sample, the Vaughn affidavits, and our own in camera review, there is now sufficient information before this court to decide whether the FBI has properly withheld material responsive to plaintiff's FOIA request.