Court Opinion

ID: 9465469
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:47:16.711308+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:11.816020
License: Public Domain

LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge,
joined by SPOTTSWOOD W. ROBINSON, III, Circuit Judge, concurring:
I concur in affirmance. But I have reservations as to certain aspects of Judge Wilkey’s opinion concerning Exemption 2.1 Its wording and legislative history have been the subject of extensive commentary. It suffices for present purposes to refer to the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dept. of Air Force v. Rose, 425 U.S. 352, 96 S.Ct. 1592, 48 L.Ed.2d 11 (1976), and at a lower level to the opinions in Vaughn v. Rosen II.2
Exemption 2 provides that the Act does not apply to matters that are—
(2) related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency.
All agree that the adoption of this wording in 1966 embodied a Congressional policy effectuating a narrower reach for the exemption than that previously provided for “any matter relating solely to the internal management of an agency.” Rose, 425 U.S. at 362, 96 S.Ct. at 1600. The issue is the extent of the exemption as narrowed.
The Senate Report stated:
Exemption No. 2 relates only to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency. Examples of these may be rules as to personnel’s use of parking facilities or regulations of lunch hours, statements of policy as to sick leave, and the like.3
The House Report stated:
2. Matters related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of any agency: Operating rules, guidelines, and manuals of procedure for Government investigators or examiners would be exempt from disclosure . . .4
In my view, the critical words of Exemption 2 are “solely” and “internal.” Exemption 2 applies only when the matters sought for disclosure are related solely to the internal personnel rules or to the internal practices of an agency.
The focus on what is internal is plain from the summarizing paragraph of Rose. The Rose litigation involved case summaries of honors and ethics hearings prepared by the cadet committee administering the hon- or code of the Air Force Academy, summaries that had been posted on squadroom bulletin boards and distributed to Academy faculty and officials. The Supreme Court said (425 U.S. at 369-79, 96 S.Ct. at 1603):
In sum, we think that, at least where the situation is not one where disclosure may risk circumvention of agency regulation, Exemption 2 is not applicable to matters subject to such a genuine and significant public interest. The exemption was not designed to authorize withholding of all matters except otherwise secret law bearing directly on the propriety of actions of members of the public. Rather, the general thrust of the exemp*783tion is simply to relieve agencies of the burden of assembling and maintaining for public inspection matter in which the public could not reasonably be expected to have an interest. The case summaries plainly do not fit that description. They are not matter with merely internal significance. They do not concern only routine matters. Their disclosure entails no particular administrative burden. We therefore agree with the Court of Appeals that, given the Senate interpretation, “the Agency’s withholding of the case summaries (as edited to preserve anonymity) cannot be upheld by reliance on the second exemption.”
What is the legal posture of the situation specifically reserved in the first sentence of the above passage, one “where disclosure may risk circumvention of agency regulation?” Judge Wilkey puts it (at --- of 192 U.S.App.D.C., at 771 of 591 F.2d) that this consideration simply plays no part in triggering Exemption 2. I disagree. In my view, Exemption 2 is applicable where the document consists of internal instructions to such government officials as investigators and bank examiners. In such a case disclosure would permit circumvention of the law, and there is no substantial, valid external interest of the community at large in revelation. That composite presents a matter that involves solely internal personnel rules and internal practices of an agency for purposes of making Exemption 2 applicable.
Judge Wilkey seems to be of the view that this construction is supported solely by the House Report, and that Report must be treated as a nullity. It is plain that the House Report is not as persuasive generally as the Senate Report, which is more congruent with the liberalizing disclosure purpose of the legislation.5 But the House Report is not a nullity. Indeed, it was explicitly incorporated into Justice Brennan’s opinion in Rose (425 U.S. at 366-67, 96 S.Ct. at 1602):
For the reasons stated by Judge Wilkey, and because we think the primary focus of the House Report was on exemption of disclosures that might enable the regulated to circumvent agency regulation, we too “choose to rely upon the Senate Report” in this regard. (Emphasis added.)
Neither Rose, Vaughn II, nor Jordan involves an instance where the Senate Report — which only purports to offer examples of Exemption 2, and not an exhaustive catalog — is flatly inconsistent with the House Report. Judge Wilkey seems to assume that the House Report is to be disregarded if it speaks to a point that is not also addressed in the Senate Report. That is not the sense of the passage quoted from Justice Brennan’s opinion.
The Supreme Court was hospitable to the House Report insofar as it provided an “exemption of disclosures that might enable the regulated to circumvent agency regulation.” That feature may not be determinative but it is material. And when what is involved are internal instructions to such officials as bank examiners and investigators, and revelation would permit circumvention of law and regulations by the regulated and there is no substantial valid external interest, there is the essential quality of predominant internality6 contemplated by Exemption 2.
Apart from matters of taste involved in Judge Wilkey’s reproach of House members for “chicanery” in interjecting belated legislative history (at --- of 192 U.S.App.D.C., at 768-769 of 591 F.2d), it should perhaps be brought out that in the spring of 1965, at the outset of the House hearings and months prior to the Senate Report, Congressman John E. Moss, chairman of the subcommittee, while attended by committee *784counsel Benny Kass, said this of Exemption 2:
Mr. Moss. What this was intended to cover was instances such as the manuals of procedure that are handed to an examiner — a bank examiner, or a savings and loan examiner, or the guidelines given to an F.B.I. agent.
While assistant attorney general Norbert Schlei remarked that different wording would have to be provided to accomplish this objective, he confessedly was “just talking off the top of my head.”7 And the Department of Justice had its own reasons for preferring broader wording'for the exemption.
Having said all this, I join in the judgment of the court because I do not consider this to be a case of predominant internality, but rather a case of substantial public interest in disclosure that is not offset by an interest in preventing circumvention of law or regulations. The policies involved all relate to post-violation procedures. Defense counsel involved have a legitimate interest in knowing the general guidelines for prosecution vel non. Instructions to Assistant United States Attorneys are directives to a class typically in government service for a relatively modest period of time. When they resign, often to represent defendants, they take with them their knowledge of such guidelines. This is not improper, but other defendants represented by other defense counsel have an interest in equal treatment. The government can phrase its directives to provide escape clauses that permit the exercises of judgment to depart from general prosecution guidelines. The core requirement of Exemption 2 is predominant internality, and in my view that does not fairly characterize the case at bar.
If Exemption 2 is not to be given this kind of interpretation, then I must acknowledge some sympathy for the opinions that implement the conviction that Congress’s actions concerning § 552(a)(2)(C) (for availability of administrative manuals) contains an implication of non-disclosure for enforcement manuals “where the sole effect of disclosure would be to enable law violators to escape detection.” Hawkes v. Internal Revenue Service, 467 F.2d 787, 795 (6th Cir. 1972). See also, Cox v. Department of Justice, 576 F.2d 1302, 1309 (8th Cir. 1978): “Thus, FOIA does not require disclosure of any portions of the manual [Drug Enforcement Agency Agents Manual] that relate to housekeeping matters or information that would impede law enforcement efforts.”
Upon consideration of Judge MacKinnon’s dissenting opinion, I am inclined to agree that Exemption 7 should be considered in support of the district court judgment, especially in view of the fact that the complaint and the district court relied solely on § 552(a)(2) and the majority proceeds on a different ground. However, I am of the view that this case does not trigger Exemption 7, which only applies to “investigatory records compiled for law enforcement purposes.” What is before us are general instructions to, and manuals for, prosecutors that enter the picture only after an investigation has been completed. The request for documents, if granted, would not reveal any “investigatory records” protected by Exemption 7, or present any of the specific harms to the law enforcement process that Exemption 7, as amended, was intended to avoid.8

. 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(2).

. H.R.Rep.No.1497, 89th Cong., 2d Sess. 10 (1966) U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1966, p. 2427.

. “The House Report is more restrictive. Generally, then, the Senate Report may be taken as more in keeping with the overall purpose of disclosure. But that does not answer questions about the construction of any particular provision.” Vaughn v. Rosen, 173 U.S.App.D.C. 187, 199, 523 F.2d 1136, 1148 (1975) (Leventhal, J., concurring).

. See Vaughn v. Rosen, 173 U.S.App.D.C. 187, 201-02, 523 F.2d 1136, 1150-51 (1975) (Leventhal, J., concurring) (“solely” is not to be given an extreme construction).

. Federal Public Records Law Part I: Hearings on H.R. 5012, et al., before the Foreign Operations and Government Information Subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Operations, 89th Cong., 1st Sess. 29-30 (March 30-April 5, 1965).

. In substance, I am persuaded by the presentation on Exemption 7 made by plaintiffs counsel in the district court. In the course of arguing for rejection of the government’s Exemption 5 claim, he relied on the manifest inapplicability of Exemption 7, stating (JA 54): “[N]one of the specific harms to law enforcement process, which is the object of that amendment to avoid, would occur. Thus, there is no claim here that disclosure would impede an investigation, would interfere with enforcement proceedings, would disclose confidential sources, would invade personal privacy, would *785disclose investigative techniques, or would endanger life or limb of an officer in the U.S.”