Court Opinion

ID: 9488801
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:55:53.423867+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:06.459110
License: Public Domain

ALAN E. NORRIS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Because the disclosure of the requested mug shots could reasonably be expected to create an unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of the subjects of those photographs, I respectfully dissent.
The FOIA privacy exemptions recognize an individual’s interest in preventing the disclosure of personal matters. United States Dep’t of Justice v. Reporters Comm. for Freedom of the Press, 489 U.S. 749, 762, 109 S.Ct. 1468, 1476, 103 L.Ed.2d 774 (1989). Protected interests “encompass the individual’s control of information concerning his or her person.” Id. at 763, 109 S.Ct. at 1476; see also Jones v. F.B.I., 41 F.3d 238, 247 (6th Cir.1994). As the Second Circuit has put it, “Congress intended to afford broad protection against the release of information about individual citizens.” Hopkins v. United States Dep’t of Hous. and Urban Dev., 929 F.2d 81, 86-87 (2nd Cir.1991).
The majority attempts to lessen the impact of the Supreme Court’s privacy exemption cases by observing that the subjects of the mug shots “had already been identified by name by the federal government and then-visages had already been revealed during prior judicial appearances.” However, the Court rejected a very similar argument in Reporters Committee. Although the information contained in the requested rap sheets was a matter of public record, the Court found that reliance upon the fact that the information had been previously disseminated reflected a “cramped notion of personal privacy.” Reporters Comm., 489 U.S. at 763, 109 S.Ct. at 1476.
The Marshals Service mug shots at issue give distinctive form to information about a person. The fact that a matter “is not wholly ‘private’ does not mean that an individual has no interest in limiting disclosure or dissemination of the information.” Reporters Comm., 489 U.S. at 770, 109 S.Ct. at 1480 (citation omitted). The majority’s view that one’s mug shot conveys no more than one’s appearance misconceives the true nature of a mug shot. While a photograph may not reveal any “private” information, a mug shot conveys much more than the appearance of the pictured individual. Unlike a photograph taken under normal circumstances, it relates a number of facts about a person, including his expression at a humiliating moment and the fact that he has been booked on criminal charges. Furthermore, as this court has recognized, mug shots are widely viewed by members of the public as signifying that the person in the photo has committed a crime. Eberhardt v. Bordenkircher, 605 F.2d 275, 280 (6th Cir.1979) (mug shots convey an “unmistakable badge of criminality”). In my view, these considerations lead to but one conclusion: that the subject of a mug shot has a cognizable privacy interest in preventing its public dissemination.
We must next inquire whether this privacy concern is outweighed by a significant public interest. The majority argues that the disclosure of mug shots would improve the functioning of the criminal justice system, helping to ensure, for instance, that the proper person has been detained. However, the record contains no evidence of abuse in the Marshals Service’s arrest and detention prac*100tices. Especially in view of the presumption of legitimacy that we accord to agency conduct, this asserted interest is utterly speculative and therefore not entitled to weight in the FOIA privacy exemption balancing. United States Dep’t of State v. Ray, 502 U.S. 164, 179, 112 S.Ct. 541, 549-50, 116 L.Ed.2d 526 (1991). Absent some evidence of misconduct by the Marshals Service, we will not weigh in the balance a desire to monitor that agency. Heights Community Congress v. Veterans Admin., 732 F.2d 526, 530 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1034, 105 S.Ct. 506, 83 L.Ed.2d 398 (1984).
In short, I believe that the disclosure of these mug shots would serve no public interest cognizable -under the FOIA. As a general rule,
[w]hen the subject of [an agency record] is a private citizen and when the information [is not] a record of “what the Government is up to,” the privacy interest protected by Exemption 7(C) is in fact at its apex while the FOIA-based public interest in disclosure is at its nadir.
Reporters Comm., 489 U.S. at 780, 109 S.Ct. at 1485. This observation applies with full force to the facts before us. The disclosure of the requested photographs would serve no cognizable purpose, yet would significantly infringe upon the personal privacy of the subjects of the photographs.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.