What is the ‘deliberative process’ privilege? And why is it used so often to deny FOIA requests?
By Ryley Graham, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Apr. 30, 2020
In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments in a case concerning the application of the “deliberative process” privilege of the federal Freedom of Information Act, a provision of the law that has long been criticized as a catch-all exemption for denying public records requests.
The case, Machado Amadis v. Department of Justice, has yet to be decided. But it represents one of the first opportunities for a federal appellate court to interpret amendments Congress made to FOIA in 2016, specifically what’s known as the “foreseeable harm standard,” which lawmakers intended, in part, to curtail the use of the deliberative process privilege.
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