Court Opinion

ID: 9477231
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:18:02.050976+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:46.097012
License: Public Domain

WALD, Chief Judge,
with whom Circuit Judges SPOTTSWOOD W. ROBINSON, III, MIKVA, HARRY T. EDWARDS, and RUTH BADER GINSBURG join, dissenting:
While I find this case a close one, I nonetheless agree with my dissenting colleagues and write separately only to underscore my view that the majority has erred in interpreting the facts to which it has applied Exemption 5 law, and that, even so, its opinion must be given a narrow reading, if it is not to work a major disruption in circuit law under FOIA.
I.
The majority opinion states that disclosure of the fact of communications between HHS and OMB as to a proposed rule is tantamount to a memo stating, “We recommend that a regulation on this [named] subject matter be promulgated.” Maj. op. at 775. As Judge Ginsburg’s dissent indicates, this analogy vastly overstates how definitive a message is actually communicated by the mere knowledge of the fact of such a transmittal or nontransmittal.
The majority opinion envisions an FDA-HHS-OMB relationship in which decision-makers act in lock-step, giving unadorned “yes” or “no” answers to transmittals from below. While information that there has been a transmittal from FDA to HHS about a possible subject of regulation may indeed suggest that the FDA proposes at that point in time to do something about a particular subject, that is all it tells. See Stipulation 11, J.A. at 69. It sheds no light on what happens later in the process; the FDA may modify or even rescind any of its tentative decisions throughout the process of HHS and OMB review “up until the time when a notice of proposed rulemaking is sent to the Federal Register for publication.” Stipulation 12, J.A. at 69. Thus, the majority erroneously asserts that if no *777transmittal from HHS to OMB is shown, it can be surmised that HHS has disapproved of the FDA proposal. Maj. op. at 771. Obviously, this is not true; it might be that although HHS approved the regulation, the FDA itself thought better of it and withdrew it. HHS also may have returned the regulation to the FDA for modifications or may have simply not yet taken any action at all. Even actual transmittal from HHS to OMB shows only that some — perhaps drastically altered — version of the original FDA proposal has received HHS approval.
The same argument may be made against the majority’s too-facile conclusion that if it becomes known that a transmittal has been made from HHS to OMB, but no regulation is subsequently put out for notice and comment, it is reasonable to conclude that OMB has disapproved of the regulatory proposal. Maj. op. at 771. OMB may have rejected the regulation or simply returned it for clarification or refinement. See J.A. at 52 (Affidavit of HHS Executive Secretary David A. Rust) (information “might also show, or purport to show, that an action is being delayed by OMB when, in fact, OMB, as part of its review, requested further information from HHS about the matter”). Or OMB may have been on the brink of finally approving the proposal when the FDA itself rescinded its initial decision to act.
In sum, the information requested by the plaintiff — i.e., the date and destination of transmittals to other agencies about rules that the FDA has already revealed are under consideration — discloses neither “the recommended outcome” at each stage nor “the source of any decision not to regulate.” Maj. op. at 775. The majority assumes a rigidified, and therefore predictable deliberation process that the record and the realities of government decisionmaking do not support.
II.
But even if information regarding the date of a proposal’s interagency transmittal did provide a clear signal that a particular agency had given a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” sign on it, this alone would still not inevitably justify invocation of the deliberative process privilege.
Unlike the case posited by the majority, in which a judge writes a memorandum “Reverse, I will write,” a mere “yes” or “no” answer to a proposed regulation, about whose content nothing is initially known other than the subject matter title,1 will rarely disclose anything about the substance of any agency’s recommendation or reasoning. In a judicial appeal, the decision which will be reversed or upheld is a matter of public record and therefore the simple memorandum “Reverse” discloses the reviewing judge’s substantive recommendation and a specific line of reasoning that she rejects.2 But, in the case before us, a “yes” or “no” recommendation is informative only to the degree that the initial proposal itself is known. In many cases, because of the generality of the proposals published in the FDA’s Regulatory Agenda or undisclosed FDA policy shifts in the interim, the “yes” or “no” will tell the reader only that something is going forward. The degree to which anything about ongoing deliberations will be revealed will depend, in each situation, on the sum of *778what was known originally about the FDA’s intent and what, in the context of that proposal’s history, the transmittal may show additionally.
In my view, to be exempted “inter-agency ... memoranda or letters” must disclose something meaningful about the substance of an agency’s preliminary reasoning or tentative conclusions. 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5).3 In this case, that will depend on how much information a regulation’s title discloses. Thus, while a transmittal under the general heading “AIDS” would not alone disclose enough substance, a regulation entitled “Federal Funding for AIDS Education in Public Schools” might. Again, however, exemption should follow only if the transmittal itself reveals the substance of the agency’s recommendation. Here, I conclude, this has not been shown.
The burden of demonstrating that disclosure would be likely to have adverse effects on agency decisionmaking falls on the government. I believe that it is inappropriate, in the context of FOIA’s overriding policy in favor of disclosure, for today’s majority to shield a whole category of information based on the mere speculation that, under some circumstances, some of it might be legitimately exempt; the information sought should be examined on a case-by-case basis.
III.
The majority opinion intimates that Exemption 5 protects the “deliberative process itself.” Maj. op. at 771-72 n. 3, 773, 774. In making this claim, it may be confusing two analytically distinct meanings of “deliberative process.” I agree that the reasoning and tentative conclusions of agency decisionmakers are privileged, although, for the reasons set out above and in the panel opinion, I disagree that the specific information requested in this case effectively reveals either agency deliberations or their fruits.
But the majority seems to go further in suggesting that the mere existence of formal FDA-HHS-OMB communications in any particular instance is itself protected under the deliberative process privilege. That betokens a dangerous departure from past Exemption 5 law and certainly does not construe the exception as “narrowly as consistent with efficient Government operation.” S.Rep. No. 813, 89th Cong., 1st Sess. 9 (1965).
The majority’s footnote 3 demonstrates the danger in the amorphous claim that Exemption 5 protects the “deliberative process itself.” There, the court suggests that the information requested in this case “is, in some respects tantamount to a Vaughn index.” Maj. op. at 771 n. 3; see also Vaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d 820 (D.C.Cir.1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 977, 94 S.Ct. 1564, 39 L.Ed.2d 873 (1974). The court claims that a Vaughn index could not be required in this case, because it would “reveal the very information concerning the agency’s deliberative process which the plaintiffs seek.” But a Vaughn index by its very nature is designed only to identify the existence of certain documents for which privilege is claimed. There is no Exemption 5 precedent suggesting that the mere existence of communications between agencies reveals so much about agency reasoning that it may not be mentioned in a Vaughn index justifying its withholding.
The majority opinion’s reliance on Hayden v. National Security Agency, 608 F.2d 1381 (D.C.Cir.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 937, 100 S.Ct. 2156, 64 L.Ed.2d 790 (1980), highlights the danger of its disturbingly broad assertions in this respect. In Hayden, we found that public itemization and detailed justification for withholding information regarding the National Security Agency’s “signals intelligence operations” would compromise legitimate secrecy interests, and therefore it was appropriate for the district court to accept in camera affidavits rather than public Vaughn indices in order to determine whether the information *779requested was exempt under the national security exemption. Id. at 1384-85; see also 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(1). The existence of valid national security interests in Hayden, however, does not advance the majority opinion’s apparent suggestion that FDA, HHS and OMB have some analogous secrecy interest in the timing of communications among themselves. The court in Hayden itself explained that:
In most other types of cases, a public Vaughn itemization does not compromise secrecy, because the contents of the requested documents are not thereby disclosed, and it is only substantive content which is allegedly exempt from disclosure.
Id. at 1385 (emphasis in original).4
The subject matter of deliberations on proposed rulemakings before the FDA, HHS and OMB are not secret, nor is the process by which these deliberations occur; Exemption 5 protects only the substantive content of the decisionmaking process. Premature disclosure of the agencies’ tentative rationales and preliminary conclusions (and factual materials to the extent that they inevitably reflect these predeci-sional views)5 is the only ground for invoking Exemption 5.
The majority’s conclusion that hereafter Exemption 5 will bar disclosure of the mere existence of communications between agencies prior to a formal rulemaking proposal, regardless of whether the fact that those communications exist tells us anything or not about their content, creates an inherent conflict with our traditional requirement of a Vaughn index, as a prerequisite to exemption. The resolution of that potential conflict in our circuit law is not at all clear at this point.
IV.
The information requested in this case is not deliberative material because it discloses nothing about the substance of agency recommendations or rationales. It does not even show a clear “yes” or “no” agency response to anything in many situations. Finally, there is no independent basis under Exemption 5 for protecting facts about the “deliberative process itself” unless such information discloses an agency’s substantive views in a way that may chill candid deliberations. The majority opinion overstates the amount of information disclosed, exaggerates its likely effect on agency deliberations and confuses the appropriate scope of Exemption 5’s deliberative memorandum exception as well.
I dissent.

. Although the Regulatory Agenda discloses regulations under FDA consideration, nothing guarantees that when a proposal is actually made by the agency it is in conformity with those initial published summaries of the issue.

. A recent Ninth Circuit case suggests a more apt analogy. In Standley v. Dep’t of Justice, 835 F.2d 216 (9th Cir.1987), the court rejected the claim that information identifying persons who received information about a grand jury investigation from a United States Attorney constituted "records of the grand jury” exempt from disclosure under the Privacy Act as records of "the courts of the United States." 5 U.S.C. § 551(1)(B). Since the information sought was not "material presented to the grand jury during its ... investigation_disclosure of such a list would not breach grand jury secrecy nor expose a court record.” Similarly, disclosing the fact and date of inter-agency communications would reveal neither the substance of what goes on within any agency nor any of the agencies' tentative conclusions. A truly substantive "memorandum or letter," like an actual court record, should be privileged, but a mere listing of who received such privileged information and at what time should not.

. Strictly construed, Exemption 5 would seem not to apply at all to a log that merely indicates receipt or transmittal of proposals. It exempts only “memoranda or letters,” undoubtedly for the express purpose of limiting its privilege to documents which divulge agency reasoning and conclusions.

. Of course, if a strong showing can be made that disclosure of the existence of certain documents would affect national security, then the information requested may be found exempt under Exemption 1. Hayden v. National Security Agency, 608 F.2d at 1385.

. The majority cites no case in which a court has held that Exemption 5 allows the procedural workings of the inter-agency deliberative process to be kept secret. See Maj. op. at 774. All of the cases cited by the majority for its proposition that Exemption 5 protects "the deliberative process itself,” involve the different situation in which factual agency memoranda implicitly disclose agency reasoning and conclusions. Those cases are inapposite because the indirect disclosure of substantive agency views can be expected "to discourage candid discussion" and "thereby undermine the agency’s ability to perform its functions," Dudman Communications v. Department of Air Force, 815 F.2d 1565, 1568 (D.C.Cir.1987), whereas the procedural fact of inter-agency transmittal cannot. See supra Parts I & II.