DOD, Sikorsky Get Claims Trimmed In FOIA Data Fight
Christopher Crosby, Law360, Jan. 24, 2018
California federal judge on Tuesday exempted the U.S. Department of Defense and contractor Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. from having to release the signatures of employees written on a subcontracting plan, handing the parties a partial win but also setting up a showdown with the American Small Business League in its Freedom of Information Act suit.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s two-page order found that the signatures did not have to be released under FOIA as the names of the employees were already in the record and no countervailing public interest warranted such a privacy intrusion.
But Judge Alsup also partially denied the DOD and Sikorsky’s joint motion for summary judgment regarding certain information on a copy of Sikorsky’s 2013 comprehensive subcontracting plan. Those redacted portions relate to the internal calculations the company makes when it hires small businesses for large government jobs, according to court records.
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