Flyers Rights Education Fund v. FAA (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming district court’s decision that FAA properly relied on Exemption 4 to withhold certain records pertaining to agency’s recertification of Boeing 737; in reaching its decision, the Court rejected four arguments made by appellants and held that: (1) generic promises by FAA to be transparent about the recertification process fell “far short of an explicit representation that FAA would disclose the disputed documents, and Boeing’s similar statements about transparency “hardly amount to an ‘explicit’ commitment to release [its] proprietary documents, let alone an indication that the FAA would do so”; (2) FAA was not required to release certain agency-authored material because FAA demonstrated that disclosure would reveal confidential commercial information obtained from Boeing; and (3) questioning whether prohibition on secret agency law may limit the scope of Exemption 4, but in any event finding that records submitted by Boeing to show compliance with FAA regulations were proprietary to Boeing’s aircraft and did not become part of FAA’s body of law; and (4) FAA carried its burden on segregability with nonconclusory affidavits.
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