Court Opinion

ID: 9470175
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:58:39.12884+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:46.003727
License: Public Domain

BORK, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part:
I concur in most of Judge Edwards’ excellent opinion and dissent only from the majority’s conclusion that the CIA’s “bad faith” in dealing with appellant’s request for documents necessitates an in camera inspection of documents withheld by the agency under the “intelligence source” ex*1115emptions to the disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. As the majority notes, the CIA has satisfied three of the four tests laid down in Military Audit Project v. Casey, 656 F.2d 724, 738 (D.C.Cir.1981). The affidavits submitted “describe in considerable detail the grounds for the exemptions claimed by the agency and reasons why each relevant document falls into one of the categories delineated.” Moreover, no representation made in the affidavits is controverted by other evidence in the record. To this point, the majority’s conclusion coincides with the findings and conclusions of the district court. Supra at 1100 n. 16, 1112-1113. The majority holds, however, contrary to the district court, that the CIA fails the fourth part of the Military Audit test because there is evidence of agency bad faith. That bad faith is shown, it is said, because it took almost two and one-half years before the agency processed appellant’s reasonably straightforward request and made no substantive response until compelled to do so by court order, and, second, the agency failed to disclose the fact that it was using the date of appellant’s request, December 22, 1978, as a cutoff date for its document searches.
Under Allen v. CIA, 636 F.2d 1287 (D.C.Cir.1980), agency bad faith is relevant because it undermines the credibility of the agency’s statements in its affidavits. I find nothing in this case which impeaches the credibility of the CIA’s affidavits. There is no evidence relating to the affidavits themselves which suggests any credibility problem. There may, of course, be cases in which an agency’s general performance evidences such a degree of untrustworthiness that a court would not feel justified in relying upon any of its statements without independent examination of the documents withheld, but I do not find this to be such a case. The district court found that there was no bad faith here, and I agree. Joint Appendix at 221. The CIA’s performance here may be far from exemplary, but it appears attributable to bureaucratic inefficiency rather than to a desire to circumvent the law. Thus, I would conclude that all four parts of the Military Audit test were met. In camera inspection was not required and summary judgment was properly granted as to documents withheld under FOIA exemptions (1) and (3).