Court Opinion

ID: 9482338
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:47:11.494058+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:55.235086
License: Public Domain

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The majority has decided that it is within the district court’s authority to order the government to produce a Vaughn index when exemption 7(A) is invoked. I respectfully dissent.
The majority agrees that NLRB v. Robbins Tire & Rubber Co., 437 U.S. 214, 98 S.Ct. 2311, 57 L.Ed.2d 159 (1978), and its progeny prohibit a district court from requiring the government to justify its decision to deny disclosure on a document-by-document basis. The majority attempts to avoid this prohibition, however, by holding that although a district court may not require a specific factual showing and explanation describing why each document is exempt, it may require a specific factual showing as to why each document belongs in a category, along with an explanation describing why the category itself is exempt. How the government can make the latter showing without being required to make the prohibited showing, the majority does not tell us.
I see no practical difference between an explanation why each document is exempt and an explanation why each category of similar documents is exempt. In both eases, the government must first provide specific factual information concerning each document, “including a general description of each document’s contents and general facts about their creation (such as date, time, and place).” Majority op. at 533. Instead of an individual explanation for non-disclosure of each document, however, the majority would require a categorical explanation for nondisclosure. Because each document must fit into a distinct category of the same or similar documents, id. at 534, the categorical explanation for nondisclosure must necessarily be the same or similar as the individual explanations that Robbins Tire prohibits.
In addition, the majority reads our decision in Barney v. IRS, 618 F.2d 1268 (8th Cir.1980), too narrowly. The majority interprets Barney to mean that specific factual information may be required if the district court is unsatisfied with the government’s showing that exemption 7(A) applies. Majority op. at 534. Barney, however, holds that “[ujnder exemption 7(A) the government is not required to make a specific factual showing with respect to each withheld document that disclosure would actually interfere with a particular enforcement proceeding.” Id. at 1273 (emphasis added) (citing Robbins Tire, 437 U.S. at 234-35, 98 S.Ct. at 2323). Other circuits have said the same. See, e.g., Lewis v. IRS, 823 F.2d 375, 378 (9th Cir.1987); Curran v. Department of Justice, 813 F.2d 473, 475 (1st Cir.1987); Church of Scientology of California v. I.R.S., 792 F.2d 146, 152 (D.C.Cir.1986); Campbell v. *537Department of Health and Human Services, 682 F.2d 256, 265 (D.C.Cir.1982).
Under FOIA, the government is required to release requested information unless a limited exemption applies. See Curran, 813 F.2d at 473. The government has the burden of demonstrating that the withheld documents are exempt from disclosure, 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B), and the district court must make a de novo determination as to whether an exemption applies. Id. To meet its burden, however, the government need not provide specific factual information document-by-document, as Barney clearly holds. The majority decision severely undermines, if not completely overrules, Barney.
In Robbins Tire, the Supreme Court pointed out that the very language of exemption 7(A) contemplates that generic determinations be made and that exemption 7(A) is to be treated differently from other exemptions. 437 U.S. at 223-24, 98 S.Ct. at 2317-18. The District of Columbia Circuit has reasoned that
[w]hen ... a claimed FOIA exemption consists of a generic exclusion, dependent upon the category of records rather than the subject matter which each individual record contains, resort to a Vaughn index is futile. Thus, in NLRB v. Robbins Tire & Rubber Co., [citation omitted] the Supreme Court upheld, without any provision of a Vaughn index, the Labor Board’s refusal to provide under FOIA witness statements obtained in the investigation of pending unfair labor practice proceedings. A Vaughn index would have served no purpose since ... Exemption 7(A) did not require a showing that each individual document would produce such interference, but could rather be applied generically, to classes of records such as witness statements.
Church of Scientology, 792 F.2d at 152 (Scalia, J.). Moreover, under exemption 7(A), “ ‘the inherent nature of the requested documents is irrelevant to the question of exemption’ ” Curran, 813 F.2d at 474 (quoting Irons v. FBI, 811 F.2d 681, 685 (1st Cir.1987)). Thus, by holding that the government may be required to provide specific factual information on a document-by-document basis under this generic exclusion, the majority opinion nullifies the exemption that 7(A) was intended to provide.
The majority contends that its holding is necessary in order to insure that exemption 7(A) does not again become a blanket exemption, arguing that a Vaughn index helps to avoid this result by allowing the district court to “verify that the government has examined and correctly categorized each document.” Majority op. at 535. This concern is misplaced. First, we have stated that “ ‘[t]he federal courts and federal judges are ill-suited to assume the role of super-administrator in FOIA cases.’ ” Cleary v. FBI, 811 F.2d 421, 423 (8th Cir.1987) (citation omitted). Second, if the government cannot meet its burden of demonstrating that the information is exempt, then the district court remains free to simply deny the exemption. The threat of disclosure, therefore, motivates the government to make a proper showing that the exemption applies.
If the generic index submitted by the government is not sufficient to sustain the 7(A) exemption, then the district court may request more specific, distinct categories so that the court can determine how each category might interfere with the investigation. Indeed, this is exactly what the District of Columbia Circuit ordered in Bevis v. Department of State, 801 F.2d 1386, 1390 (D.C.Cir.1986), a case upon which the majority relies for the proposition that the agency must individually review each document. While the agency must review each document to determine its proper categorical placement, id. at 1389, the agency is not required to provide specific factual information about each document. See Campbell, 682 F.2d at 265.
If the categories remain too general, the court may also examine the disputed documents in camera to make a first hand determination. 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B); Lewis, 823 F.2d at 379; Cleary, 811 F.2d at 423 (citation omitted) (the court should utilize “an in camera examination of the [material] itself as an aid in determining whether the Government’s affidavits are *538accurate and made in good faith ); Bevis, 801 F.2d at 1390. The remedy is not, however, resort to a Vaughn index.10
Congress enacted exemption 7(A) to prohibit interference in an ongoing criminal investigation. The Supreme Court’s decision in Robbins to allow generic category-by-category indices in exemption 7(A) cases, rather than requiring detailed factual information on a document-by-document basis, serves an important interest: when government confidentiality is at stake during an investigation, “provision of the detail which a satisfactory Vaughn index entails would itself probably breach the dike.” Curran, 813 F.2d at 475. In short, the requirement of a Vaughn index in these cases will cause the cure, exemption 7(A), “to become the carrier of the disease.” Id.
I would reverse the district court’s order.
Order
February 12, 1992
The suggestion for rehearing en banc is granted. The judgment and opinion previously filed by the panel are vacated.
This case is set for argument before the Court en banc on Monday, May 11, 1992, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The parties are allowed, but not required, to file supplemental briefs not to exceed 15 pages in length. The briefs are to be filed simultaneously with the Clerk of this Court on or before February 26, 1992.

. In Dickerson v. Department of Justice, No. 90-CV-060045 (E.D.Mich. July 31, 1991), the plaintiff sought the release of information from the Hoffa FBI file and requested a Vaughn index. The court accepted the government's categorical index, examined certain documents in camera, and granted summary judgment to the government on the basis of exemption 7(A). The court stated that it is "satisfied beyond any doubt that the investigation into Hoffa’s disappearance is active and continuing, with the clear direction of future criminal proceedings being instituted." Moreover the court held that "in camera inspection mandates that the FBI files not be disclosed.” In the instant case, the district court refused the opportunity to view documents in camera.