Opinion ID: 697751
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Rational Nexus Test

Text: 15 The remaining document disclosures all raise issues about 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552(b)(7). This section includes six different exemptions, all of which share the threshold requirement that the withheld record be compiled for law enforcement purposes. The district court denied some withholding requests because the documents were not compiled for any law enforcement purpose, and others because, although the documents met this threshold requirement, they did not satisfy the requirements of any of the particular exemptions. This part addresses rulings that documents had no law enforcement purpose. Parts IV, V, and VI consider exemption 7(C), 7(D), and 7(E) issues, respectively. 16 The government always bears the burden to show that a given document is covered by an exemption and should be withheld. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552(a)(4)(B). However, in this case, the government's burden for satisfying the threshold requirement of exemption 7 is easier to satisfy than the burden for other requirements. The releasing agency in this case, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has a clear law enforcement mandate. Binion v. Department of Justice, 695 F.2d 1189, 1194 (9th Cir.1983). Because of this mandate, the government need only establish a 'rational nexus' between enforcement of a federal law and the document for which [a law enforcement] exemption is claimed. Church of Scientology v. Department of the Army, 611 F.2d 738, 748 (9th Cir.1979). 17 The rational nexus test requires courts to accord a degree of deference to a law enforcement agency's decisions to investigate. The court need not accept the government's claim that a previous investigation had a law enforcement purpose if the asserted purpose is pretextual or wholly unbelievable. Pratt v. Webster, 673 F.2d 408, 421 (D.C.Cir.1982). 5 However, in other circumstances, the court should not second-guess a law enforcement agency's decision to investigate if there is a plausible basis for the decision. Id., cited in Wilkinson v. FBI, 633 F.Supp. 336, 343 (C.D.Cal.1986).