Opinion ID: 182596
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: FOIA Overview

Text: Congress enacted FOIA to open agency action to the light of public scrutiny. Dep't of Air Force v. Rose, 425 U.S. 352, 361, 96 S.Ct. 1592, 48 L.Ed.2d 11 (1976) (quotation omitted). To promote government accountability, disclosure, not secrecy, is the dominant objective of the Act. Id. Recognizing, however, certain instances in which disclosure would harm legitimate interests, Congress exempted from FOIA's disclosure mandate nine categories of records. Trentadue v. Integrity Comm., 501 F.3d 1215, 1225-26 (10th Cir. 2007); 5 U.S.C. § 552(b). The government bears the burden of demonstrating the requested records fall within one of FOIA's enumerated exemptions, which we construe narrowly in favor of disclosure. Trentadue, 501 F.3d at 1226. Relevant here, Exemption 7(C) [4] allows an agency to withhold records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information ... could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(C). We therefore first determine whether there is a personal privacy interest at stake, and, if so, balance the privacy interests against the public interest in disclosure. See U.S. Dep't of Justice v. Reporters Comm. for Freedom of the Press, 489 U.S. 749, 776, 109 S.Ct. 1468, 103 L.Ed.2d 774 (1989).