Jurewicz, et al. v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture & Humane Society, No. 12-5331 (D.C. Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs, dog breeders and dealers in Missouri, challenged the Department's decision to release information in their annual reports relating to their gross revenue and business volume. Plaintiffs contended that the information requested by the Human Society under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, was covered by Exemptions 4 and 6. The court concluded that the Department's Exemption 4 conclusion was not arbitrary or capricious where the Department determined that Exemption 4 did not apply because the information at issue was unlikely to cause substantial competitive harm to plaintiffs. Further, plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the Department's conclusion that Exemption 6 did not apply to the information at issue was arbitrary and capricious. The Department concluded that the public's interest in the activities of the Department outweighed the negligible privacy interest in the number of animals bought and sold and the minimal privacy interest in the gross dollars earned from regulated activities and the dollars upon which the fee was based. Accordingly, the court affirmed the grant of summary judgment to the Department and the Humane Society.
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