FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: Feds file opening SCOTUS brief in Exemption 5 case

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Endangered Species Records Ruling Would Undermine FOIA, Feds Say

By Ellen M. Gilmer, Bloomberg Law, May 22, 2020

  • Agencies are challenging Ninth Circuit ruling

  • Dispute stems from records for EPA regulation

The Trump administration is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the government to keep certain endangered species records out of the public eye.

Government lawyers submitted a brief Thursday calling on the justices to reverse a lower court’s ruling that required the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to release draft documents related to an environmental regulation’s impacts on at-risk species.

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