Opinion ID: 505484
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Have the Documents Been Improperly Withheld?

Text: 13 Agency records may normally be withheld only if the agency sustains its burden of proving that they fall within a specific exemption in the statute. 6 See Coastal States Gas Corp. v. Department of Energy, 644 F.2d 969, 975 (3rd Cir.1981). Neither an agency nor a court may impose its own additional criteria as to when disclosure is proper; the settled policy of the FOIA is one of full agency disclosure unless information is exempted under clearly delineated statutory language. S.Rep. No. 813, 89th Cong., 1st Sess. 3 (1965). 7 Indeed, we have said more than once that a refusal to release documents that are in [an] agency's 'custody' or 'control' for any reason other than those set forth in the Act's enumerated exceptions would constitute 'withholding.'  McGehee v. CIA, 697 F.2d 1095, 1110 (emphasis added; footnote omitted), aff'd in part and vacated in part on other grounds, 711 F.2d 1076 (D.C.Cir.1983). Most important, the statute itself is clear on the point: This section does not authorize withholding of information or limit the availability of records to the public, except as specifically stated in this section. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552(c). 14 No exemption applies to the district court opinions. 8 The Department maintains nonetheless that it need not affirmatively make them available to Tax Analysts because the documents have not been withheld to begin with; it argues that with the information already provided through the Division's logs, Tax Analysts can obtain the decisions from the originating courts themselves. 15 Although we can find no clear precedent on the issue, it strikes us as strange that an agency could in all cases deny access to records otherwise disclosable on the ground that they are available elsewhere. It is true that an agency need not respond to a FOIA request for copies of documents where the agency itself has provided an alternative form of access. For example, in SDC Development Corp. v. Mathews, 542 F.2d 1116, 1119 (9th Cir.1976) (Kennedy, J.), the Ninth Circuit held that a computer database of medical information need not be disclosed in response to the FOIA request because it was already available from the agency through another statutorily prescribed means. And in Lead Industries Ass'n, Inc. v. OSHA, 610 F.2d 70 (2d Cir.1979), Judge Friendly explained, albeit laconically, why material in an agency record that had previously appeared in the agency's final published report need not be separately disclosed pursuant to a FOIA request: If the segment appeared, it is already on the public record and need not be disclosed. 9 Id. at 86. Relying on Lead Industries, a Seventh Circuit district court similarly denied access to preliminary drafts of a later published report primarily on Exemption 5 grounds, stating that as to matters appearing in the final version, Material already on public record need not be disclosed. City of W. Chicago v. Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n, 547 F.Supp. 740, 749 (N.D.Ill.1982). But whether the principle of alternative access by the same agency spills over to requests of one agency for public record documents obtainable from another independent source is not so clear. 10 16 For instance, at least one Supreme Court FOIA opinion seems to assume that public availability from a nonagency source is not sufficient by itself to justify an agency's refusal to make its records available under the FOIA. In Department of State v. Washington Post Co., 456 U.S. 595, 102 S.Ct. 1957, 72 L.Ed.2d 358 (1982), while the Court opined that citizenship information which is a matter of public record somewhere in the Nation may make it less likely to be exempt from disclosure under Exemption 6, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552(b)(6), as a clear invasion of personal privacy, it never hinted at the possibility that its public record status alone would suffice to exempt it. Id. at 602-03 n. 5, 102 S.Ct. at 1961-62 n. 5. 11 Similarly, in Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press v. Department of Justice, 816 F.2d 730, modified, 831 F.2d 1124 (D.C.Cir.1987), cert. granted, --- U.S. ---- 108 S.Ct. 1467, 99 L.Ed.2d 697 (1988), we held that FOIA disclosure of criminal histories does not run afoul of the privacy exemption if they are publicly available in the originating jurisdiction. No suggestion was made in this case either that the agency could meet its FOIA duty by directing the applicant to the original public source for the requested record. Indeed, it is common knowledge that agency records often contain publicly available information, e.g., newspaper clippings, other government publications. Yet we are aware of no court which has denied access to such documents on the ground that they are available elsewhere, and several have assumed that such documents must still be produced by the agency unless expressly exempted by the Act. 17 The statute itself confers on the courts the power and responsibility to enjoin the agency from withholding disclosable records, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552(a)(4)(B), indicating that it is the agency's responsibility to make its records available, whatever their source. In common parlance, if someone asks to borrow another's newspaper, and she says, No, go to the newsstand and buy your own, she is withholding it. Similarly, it would be a novel interpretation of the FOIA's prohibition on withholding, that permitted an agency to direct an applicant elsewhere for the information he sought from that agency's files. 18 The Department predictably points out that making and sending copies of all federal district court tax decisions to Tax Analysts on a weekly basis would create large administrative burdens. This concern weighed heavily in the district court's analysis and troubles us as well. Imposing an enormous and costly administrative burden on the Justice Department to secure already publicly available material for a commercial publication is certainly not the commonly perceived purpose of the FOIA. 12 Nonetheless, we cannot find in the words of the statute any exemption to cover such a situation and we are comforted somewhat by the knowledge that the burden in this case need not be so excessive as the Department makes out. 13 Compliance with the request for access to such decisions could involve no more than a memorandum to tax attorneys telling them to make an extra copy of district court decisions as they receive them and route such copies to a central file to which the plaintiffs would have access. 14 No file searches need be involved at all. 19 Thus our decision that district court opinions qualifying as agency records cannot be withheld means only that extra copies of these decisions must be made available in an agency reading room. 15 The Department is not required by statute to mail copies of all such decisions to Tax Analysts nor even to provide a requester-convenient location for access. See Mandel Grunfeld and Herrick v. U.S. Customs Service, 709 F.2d 41 (11th Cir.1983) (posting in Puerto Rican customshouse of agency records sufficient to meet FOIA obligation to Miami attorney applicant). The yoke of the FOIA in this instance may be lighter than it would appear at first glance. 20 At any rate, as we have incanted so often, the statute does not confer judicial discretion to balance its dictates against the administrative burdens of disclosure. 16 See Sears v. Gottshalk, 502 F.2d 122, 126 (4th Cir.1974) (burden and expense of disclosure does not justify withholding), cert. denied sub nom. Sears v. Dann, 422 U.S. 1056, 95 S.Ct. 2680, 45 L.Ed.2d 709 (1975). Congress eliminated agency discretion to withhold information on administrative burden grounds when it substituted the FOIA for section three of the Administrative Procedure Act in 1974. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 1002 (1964) (limiting disclosure to persons properly and directly concerned with information). See Environmental Protection Agency v. Mink, 410 U.S. 73, 79-80, 93 S.Ct. 827, 832, 35 L.Ed.2d 119 (1973). Moreover, Congress explicitly dealt with the matter of administrative expense by providing for the payment of search and duplication costs by FOIA claimants. See supra note 13. 21 In sum, we hold that in response to a FOIA request, an agency must itself make disclosable agency records available to the public and may not on grounds of administrative convenience avoid this statutory duty by pointing to another public source for the information. We reject the Tax Division's novel argument that it need only provide a log telling the applicant where these decisions can be obtained elsewhere. 22