Opinion ID: 490507
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: District Court's Reliance upon GTE Sylvania

Text: 30 In issuing its protective order, the District Court did not rely upon the rationale we have set forth. Instead, it pointed out that the order would not impede the Commission's investigation, and then added that the order would grant additional protection to Tenneco in the event of a third-party request for its information. Here, the court cited GTE Sylvania, Inc. v. Consumers Union of the United States, Inc., 445 U.S. 375, 100 S.Ct. 1194, 63 L.Ed.2d 467 (1980), for the proposition that an agency which refuses to release documents because of a court injunction prohibiting release is not 'improperly' withholding agency records. Mem.0p. at 2, ITC Br.App. GTE Sylvania indeed holds that an agency is not improperly withholding records under 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552(a)(4)(B) 7 if it is doing so to obey a federal district court injunction. However, the GTE Sylvania Court explicitly stated that it had no view on whether or not the underlying injunction should have issued, only that once it had issued, the agency had to abide by it. Id. at 387 n. 10, 100 S.Ct. at 1202 n. 10. The District Court, therefore, could not rely upon GTE Sylvania to support the appropriateness of the protective order itself. 31 It is clear, though, that we may affirm a district court on grounds other than those upon which it relied. See Langnes v. Green, 282 U.S. 531, 538-39, 51 S.Ct. 243, 246, 75 L.Ed. 520 (1931); Molerio v. FBI, 749 F.2d 815, 820 (D.C.Cir.1984). Accordingly, for the reasons we have stated herein the judgment is 32 Affirmed.