Opinion ID: 171697
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The District Court Memorandum Decision

Text: The Counties and the BLM filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court upheld the BLM's refusal to waive FOIA search fees under 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(iii) for a search of the e-mail backup tapes housed at the Utah State Office, reasoning that the production of these additional documents likely would not contribute to the public's understanding and that the request was unduly burdensome. Bd. of County Comm'rs of Kane County, 2007 WL 2156613, at . The district court also upheld the BLM's decision to withhold various inter-agency documents pursuant to Exemption 5. However, the district court held that the BLM erred in withholding two documents authored by Mr. Hess (and incorporated a prior court order that held that the third document authored by Mr. Hess was improperly withheld), finding that the documents fell outside the scope of Exemption 5. Id. at -12 & n. 6. The district court recognized that the views of a governmental consultant can be deemed intraagency under Exemption 5, but held that the exemption was not available where the consultant is `communicating with the Government in [his] own interest or on behalf of any person or group whose interests might be affected by the Government action addressed by the consultant.' Id. at  (quoting Klamath Water Users, 532 U.S. at 12, 121 S.Ct. 1060). The district court acknowledged that Mr. Hess lacked any interest in competing for a grazing permit or representing any party who was interested in doing so, but concluded that he was not a disinterested expert and therefore the intra-agency exemption was unavailable. Id. The district court relied upon Mr. Hess's past scholarship and advocacy on the topic of grazing reform as disqualifying his reports for the exemption. Id. Defendants now appeal, claiming that Mr. Hess's documents fell well within Exemption 5, and that the district court's ruling was an improper expansion of the reasoning in Klamath. Aplt.-Cross-Aplee. Br. 14. The Counties cross-appeal, claiming that the district court erred in denying their request for a fee waiver regarding the e-mail communications stored by the Utah State Office. Aplee.-Cross-Aplt. Br. 8-9.