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U.S. Department of Justice FOIA website
SPJ FOIA Resources
A Citizen's Guide to FOIA
The federal FOIA does not apply to the judicial or legislative branches of the federal government.
Federal FOIA Documents must:
- Be held in the Executive branch or an Independent Regulatory
Agency.
- Be an "agency record," and
- Contain non-exempt material.
Agency Record
Agency
- Any executive department, military department, Government corporation,
Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in
the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive
Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency
Record
- Any information that would be an agency record subject to the
requirements of this section when maintained by an agency in
any format, including an electronic format.
To be an Agency Record, a document:
- Must be created or obtained by an agency.
- Must be possessed by an agency.
EXEMPTIONS
1. NATIONAL SECURITY
2. INTERNAL PERSONNEL AND PRACTICES
- Information relating to personnel rules...is exempt if it is trivial administrative matter of no genuine
public interest.
- An internal administrative manual can be exempt if disclosure would risk circumvention of law
or agency regulations.
3. MATERIAL SPECIFICALLY EXEMPT BY STATUTE
- A statute must require that matters be withheld from the public
in such a manner as to leave no discretion to the agency. Alternatively, the statute must establish particular criteria for withholding or refer to particular types of matters to be withheld.
4. TRADE SECRETS/FINANCIAL INFORMATION
- Trade secrets and confidential business information.
- A trade secret is a commercially valuable plan, formula, process, or device.
- Commercial or financial information obtained from a person and
privileged or confidential...[i]f disclosure by the government
would be likely to harm the competitive position of the person
who submitted the information.
5. INTERAGENCY AND INTRAAGENCY MEMOS (WORKING PAPERS)
- Purpose... is to safeguard the deliberative policymaking process
of government.
- Allows supporting documents to be withheld from public disclosure.
- Protects against premature disclosure of policies before final
adoption.
- Does not protect purely factual information related to the policy
process. Factual information must be disclosed unless it is inextricably
intertwined with protected
information about an agency decision.
- Incorporates some of the privileges that apply in litigation
involving the government.
6. PERSONNEL AND MEDICAL FILES AND SIMILAR FILES.
- Requires agencies to strike a balance between an individual's privacy interest and the public's right to know...A clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy is a basis for withholding.
- The Privacy Act of 1974
7. INVESTIGATORY RECORDS COMPILED FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT PURPOSES.
Six Categories of exempt information:
- Interfere with enforcement proceedings.
- Right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication.
- Information that ``could reasonably be expected to''invade someone's privacy.
- Information that could reasonably be expected to reveal the identity
of a confidential source.
- Information that would reveal techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions or that would
disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions
if disclosure of the information could reasonably be expected
to risk circumvention of the law.
- Information that could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.
8. RECORDS OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.
- The eighth exemption protects information that is contained in
or related to examination, operating, or condition reports prepared
by or for a bank supervisory agency such as the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve, or similar agencies.
9. GEOLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL INFORMATION AND DATA.
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