Cameranesi v. US Department of Defense, No. 14-16432 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Ninth Circuit withdrew its previous opinion and dissent, filing a superseding opinion and dissent. The Ninth Circuit reversed the grant of summary judgment for plaintiffs in their suit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552 et seq., against the DOD, seeking the names of foreign students and instructors at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The Ninth Circuit held that the disclosure of the names would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Applying a two-step test to determine whether disclosing the names would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy under FOIA Exemption 6, the Ninth Circuit concluded that the affidavits and other evidence submitted by the DOD were sufficient to carry the DOD's burden to establish that disclosure of the requested information gave rise to a nontrivial risk of harassment and mistreatment. Furthermore, the public interest did not outweigh the serious risks that would result from disclosure where any incremental value stemming from the disclosure of the names was small.
Court Description: Freedom of Information Act. The panel withdrew the opinion and dissent filed on September 30, 2016; filed a superseding opinion and dissent; and reversed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs, who brought an action under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) against the United States Department of Defense seeking the names of foreign students and instructors at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The panel held that disclosure of the names of the foreign students and instructors would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, and was exempt from disclosure under Exemption 6 of FOIA, which provides that FOIA “does not apply to . . . personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6). Applying the two-step test to determine whether disclosing the names would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy under Exemption 6, the panel first concluded that the affidavits and other evidence submitted by the Department of Defense was sufficient to carry the Department’s burden to establish that the disclosure of the requested information gave rise to a nontrivial risk of harassment and mistreatment. Second, the panel balanced the CAMERANESI V. U.S. DEP’T OF DEFENSE 3 privacy interests against the public interests, and concluded that the small incremental value stemming from disclosure of the identities did not outweigh the serious risks that would result from disclosure. Dissenting, Judge Watford would affirm the district court’s summary judgment, because in his view the Department of Defense did not carry its burden of demonstrating that the students’ and instructors’ interests outweighed the strong public interest in disclosure of their names.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on September 30, 2016.
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