[IP] Failure to Google foils FBI FOIA freeze
Begin forwarded message:
From: "James S. Tyre" <jstyre@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 31, 2006 12:44:13 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dfarber@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Failure to Google foils FBI FOIA freeze
"For the times they are a-changin'."
-- Bob Dylan
Davis v. DoJ, No. 04-5406, D.C. Cir Aug. 22, 2006
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/dc/045406a.pdf
GARLAND, Circuit Judge: This case involves four audiotapes recorded
more than twenty-five years ago during an FBI corruption
investigation in Louisiana. The plaintiff, an author, seeks release
of the tapes under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. §
552. There are two speakers on the tapes, one a "prominent
individual" who was a subject of the FBI's investigation, and the
other an "undercover informant" in that investigation. The only
question on this appeal is whether the FBI has undertaken reasonable
steps to determine whether the speakers are now dead, in which event
the privacy interests weighing against release would be diminished.
The FBI has not been able to determine whether either speaker is dead
or alive. It says it cannot determine whether the speakers are over
100 years old (and thus presumed dead under FBI practice), because
neither mentioned his birth date during the conversations that were
surreptitiously recorded. It says it cannot determine whether the
speakers are dead by referring to a Social Security database, because
neither announced his social security number during the
conversations. And it declines to search its own files for the
speakers' birth dates or social security numbers, because that is not
its practice. The Bureau does not appear to have contemplated other
ways of determining whether the speakers are dead, such as Googling
them.
We conclude that the FBI has not "made a reasonable effort to
ascertain" whether the two speakers, on whose behalf it has invoked a
privacy exemption from FOIA, are living or dead. Schrecker v. Dep't
of Justice, 349 F.3d 657, 662 (D.C. Cir.
2003) ("Schrecker II"). As a consequence, there is a serious
"‘question whether the Bureau's invocation of the privacy interest
represented a reasonable response to the FOIA request.'" Id.
(quoting Summers v. Dep't of Justice, 140 F.3d 1077, 1085 (D.C. Cir.
2003) (Williams, J., concurring)). We therefore reverse the district
court's dismissal of the plaintiff's FOIA complaint and remand for
further proceedings.
[....]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
James S. Tyre jstyre@xxxxxxxxxx
Law Offices of James S. Tyre 310-839-4114/310-839-4602(fax)
10736 Jefferson Blvd., #512 Culver City, CA 90230-4969
Co-founder, The Censorware Project http://censorware.net
Policy Fellow, Electronic Frontier Foundation http://www.eff.org
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/