Opinion ID: 2827462
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The FBI properly withheld records under

Text: Exemption 7(E). Plaintiffs contend that the FBI did not adequately justify withholding certain records under Exemption 7(E). We disagree. Exemption 7(E) protects records compiled for law enforcement purposes from disclosure if those records “would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(E). We have held that “Exemption 7(E) only exempts investigative techniques not generally known to the public.” Rosenfeld v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 57 F.3d 803, 815 (9th Cir. 1995). In Rosenfeld, we decided that a pretext phone call was a generally known law enforcement technique. Id. In that case, the government argued that the technique at issue involved the specific application of a pretext phone call, because it used “the identity of a particular individual, Mario Savio, as the pretext.” Id. We rejected that argument, 28 HAMDAN V. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE reasoning that accepting it would allow anything to be withheld under Exemption 7(E) because any specific application of a known technique would be covered. Id. Here, Plaintiffs challenge the complete withholding of five documents and the partial withholding of ten under Exemption 7(E). According to the FBI’s affidavit, those records reveal “techniques and procedures related to surveillance and credit searches,” and in one document, “a stratagem, the details of which if revealed would preclude its use in future cases.” It is true that credit searches and surveillance are publicly known law enforcement techniques. But the affidavits say that the records reveal techniques that, if known, could enable criminals to educate themselves about law enforcement methods used to locate and apprehend persons. This implies a specific means of conducting surveillance and credit searches rather than an application. By contrast, withholding, for example, records under Exemption 7(E) by claiming that they reveal the satellite surveillance of a particular place would be an application of a known technique under Rosenberg (though that information might be protected by other exemptions). We conclude that the affidavits, which state that further detail would compromise the very techniques the government is trying to keep secret, are sufficient to satisfy the FBI’s burden. Cf. Bowen v. FDA, 925 F.2d 1225, 1229 (9th Cir. 1991) (holding that additional details of law enforcement techniques were exempt from disclosure under 7(E) even where some information about those techniques had been previously disclosed). Plaintiffs also contend that the FBI must show that disclosure would lead to a danger of future lawbreaking. The exemption protects information that “would disclose HAMDAN V. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE 29 techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(E). Plaintiffs argue that the FBI must show that disclosure of its techniques would risk circumvention of the law for Exemption 7(E) to apply. But Plaintiffs’ argument is an unpersuasive reading of the statutory text and structure. As the Second Circuit has explained: Beginning, as we must, with the plain meaning of the statute’s text and structure, we see no ambiguity. The sentence structure of Exemption (b)(7)(E) indicates that the qualifying phrase (“if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law”) modifies only “guidelines” and not “techniques and procedures.” This is because the two alternative clauses that make up Exemption 7(E) are separated by a comma, whereas the modifying condition at the end of the second clause is not separated from its reference by anything at all. Thus, basic rules of grammar and punctuation dictate that the qualifying phrase modifies only the immediately antecedent “guidelines” clause and not the more remote “techniques and procedures” clause. Allard K. Lowenstein Int’l Human Rights Project v. Dep’t of Homeland Security, 626 F.3d 678, 681 (2d Cir. 2010) (citations omitted). 30 HAMDAN V. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE Finally, we reject Plaintiffs’ contention that Exemption 7(E) does not apply because the FBI is seeking to conceal information about law enforcement techniques that are “illegal or of questionable legality.” Wilkinson v. FBI, 633 F. Supp. 336, 349 (C.D. Cal. 1986). We need not address whether Exemption 7(E) is so limited because there is no indication that any of the techniques being protected from disclosure are of questionable legality. The techniques the FBI seeks to protect from disclosure relate to surveillance and credit searches, and Plaintiffs have made no showing of any unlawful uses of such techniques. Plaintiffs assert that Exemption 7(E) is being used to cover up the FBI’s use of proxy detention, but as we discussed above, there has not been a sufficient showing of the FBI’s bad faith and nothing in the affidavits suggests that information about proxy detention is in the records the FBI has withheld under Exemption 7(E). We affirm the district court’s ruling as to Exemption 7(E). C. The district court erred by not making findings on the issue of segregability. FOIA provides that any “reasonably segregable portion of a record shall be provided to any person requesting such record after deletion of the portions which are exempt under this subsection.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b). We have held that “[i]t is reversible error for the district court ‘to simply approve the withholding of an entire document without entering a finding on segregability, or the lack thereof,’ with respect to that document.” Wiener, 943 F.2d at 988 (quoting Church of Scientology v. U.S. Dep’t of the Army, 611 F. 2d 738, 744 (9th Cir. 1979)). Wiener reversed the district court and remanded with an instruction that the court “must make a HAMDAN V. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE 31 specific finding that no information contained in each document or substantial portion of a document withheld is segregable.” Id. “The burden is on the agency to establish that all reasonably segregable portions of a document have been segregated and disclosed.” Pac. Fisheries, Inc. v. United States, 539 F.3d 1143, 1148 (9th Cir. 2008). The agency can meet this burden by providing the district court with a reasonably detailed description of the withheld material and “alleging facts sufficient to establish an exemption.” Id. Here, we do not know whether the district court ensured that the agency met its burden to establish that all reasonably segregable material had been separated and disclosed. That is because the only mention of segregability in the district court’s order was its statement in a footnote that it need not “undertake an independent segregability analysis on each document if the documents are withheld for attorney-client or work product privilege.” That statement is insufficient to demonstrate that the district court considered segregability as it relates to the FOIA exemptions invoked below. Because we have previously held that it is reversible error for the district court to approve the withholding of a document without a segregability finding, we now remand to the district court for such a finding. That said, we recognize that there is conflicting guidance within our circuit as to what constitutes a proper segregability analysis. Compare Weiner, 943 F.2d at 988 (holding that the district court must conduct a careful de novo review of the agency and remanding for the district court to make a specific finding for each document as to segregability), with Pac. Fisheries, 539 F.3d at 1150 (holding that a district court may rely on an agency declaration that is reasonably detailed and remanding for the 32 HAMDAN V. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE district court to make specific findings relating to segregability for all documents). It is not reasonable to interpret our precedent to require the district court to take on the role of document clerk, reviewing each and every document an agency withholds. A district court must take seriously its role as a check on agency discretion, but this does not require a page-by-page review of an agency’s work. The district court may rely on an agency’s declaration in making its segregability determination. Pac. Fisheries, 539 F.3d at 1148. Agency affidavits that are sufficiently detailed are presumed to be made in good faith and may be taken at face value. Hunt, 981 F.2d at 1119. In short, a district court is not required to conduct an independent in camera review of each withholding unless an agency declaration lacks sufficient detail or bears some indicia of bad faith by the agency. Of course, for those records, if any, falling within a district court’s rulings on an agency’s Glomar6 or § 552(c)7 submissions, no segregability analysis would be necessary, because that would defeat the very purpose of those doctrines. 6 The Glomar doctrine lets an agency refuse to confirm or deny whether certain records exist. This is “an exception to the general rule that agencies must acknowledge the existence of information responsive to a FOIA request . . . [and is] permitted only when confirming or denying the existence of records would itself cause harm cognizable under [a] FOIA exception.” ACLU, 710 F.3d at 426 (quoting Wolf, 473 F.3d at 374) (internal quotation marks omitted). 7 5 U.S.C. § 552(c) provides that FOIA does not apply in situations concerning certain law enforcement and intelligence activities where even whether certain records exist is classified. HAMDAN V. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE 33 Plaintiffs object to the withholdings by the State Department, FBI, and DIA for two reasons. First, Plaintiffs suggest that an agency must describe what proportion of each document is non-exempt material and how that material is dispersed throughout the document. Second, Plaintiffs suggest that withholding a document in full or using large block redactions is inappropriate. We disagree. An agency must describe the document or information being withheld in sufficient detail to allow the plaintiffs and the court to determine whether the facts alleged establish the corresponding exemption. Pac. Fisheries, 539 F.3d at 1148. We have not held that the manner of that description must take any particular format, so long as it is sufficiently detailed. See id. In the interest of clarifying our circuit’s segregability standard, we examine below whether and how each agency complied with its obligations to establish “that all reasonably segregable portions of [their documents] have been segregated and disclosed.” Id. The State Department’s declarations are sufficiently detailed such that the district court could take them at face value. The declarations identify the withheld documents individually. They provide an individualized explanation of the material being withheld. They identify the corresponding exemption. And in some cases, they even note that the “withheld portions are so inextricably intertwined with the non-exempt portion, that any segregable material would not be meaningful.” Moreover, there is ample evidence that the State Department has acted in good faith in its dealings with the district court and Plaintiffs, including re-reviewing materials for release at Plaintiffs’ request and closely scrutinizing what it releases. For example, the State Department released a document to Plaintiffs in which there 34 HAMDAN V. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE was only one sentence that was not redacted. Rather than withhold the entire document, the State Department took the correct view that it was required to release any information that was not classified, even if it was a single sentence. Though the FBI’s declarations are not as robust as the State Department’s, they are still sufficiently detailed to enable the district court to take them at face value. The declarations identify documents by number. They provide specific reasons why the disclosure of information would be harmful. And, the FBI specifically states that “[n]o reasonably segregable, nonexempt portions were withheld from plaintiffs.” This is supported by the partially redacted documents that the FBI produced. These documents demonstrate that the FBI released large portions of previously classified material, redacting only the bare minimum of information. In contrast, the DIA’s declarations lack sufficient detail to allow the district court to determine that the claimed exemptions apply throughout all of the documents.8 The DIA provides little individualized information about the withheld documents. The first eighteen documents in the DIA’s Vaughn index vary in length from two to eight pages; some are classified Secret, some Top Secret. But all are completely withheld for the same reason. The DIA claims their release would “reveal intelligence sources and methods” without 8 Our concern with the adequacy of the segregability issue does not undermine our previous holding, that the DIA properly withheld records under FOIA Exemptions 1 and 3. See supra Sections III.B.1 and 2. The DIA’s declarations are sufficiently detailed for the determinations in Section III.B but simply lack the information necessary for a segregability determination. HAMDAN V. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE 35 providing any detail about whether or not the DIA considered releasing reasonably segregable information. Nor does the DIA provide us with any evidence of its good faith. All of the DIA’s documents are completely withheld, so the district court did not have the opportunity to observe the DIA’s approach to redaction. Moreover, some of the DIA’s declarations are self-contradictory. In its initial declaration, the DIA identifies twenty-seven responsive documents that must be withheld in full because of “FOIA exemptions (b)(1), (b)(2), (b)(3), and (b)(6).” Yet the attached Vaughn index never invokes FOIA exemption (b)(2). Without further detail from the DIA it is not possible for the district court to presume that the DIA’s declarations are made in good faith.9 We vacate the grant of summary judgment solely on the issue of segregability. As to all of the records whose existence is not itself classified, the district court should determine on remand whether there is any content that can be segregated from the exempt information and turned over to Plaintiffs.