Chief Justice Roberts delivered today the 8-0 decision of the Supreme Court in the case Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T (Justice Kagan took no part in the case). The Court held unanimously that the protection in FOIA against disclosure of law enforcement information on the ground that it would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy does not extend to corporations. The text of the opinion is available here.
Posts in "General" category / Page 3
This is to announce the publication of the edited volume based on the conference on Comparative Administrative Law that Professors Susan Rose-Ackerman and Peter Lindseth organized at Yale Law School in May 2009.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, allows citizens to access government documents unless one of nine numerated exemptions applies. Exemption 2 [5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(2)] exempts from disclosure records “related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency.” In this case, petitioner Glen Milner requested maps showing how far an explosion would travel from the U.S. Navy’s Magazine Indian Island into the surrounding public waters, property and community. The Navy refused to release the maps although it did disclose most of the requested documents to Milner. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Navy.
There is an article on the European Parliament (EP) website today (available here) examining the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on comitology. Until now the European Commission’s implementation of much EU legislation was overseen by committees of Member State experts, through the so-called “comitology” system, which was criticized for its lack of transparency and democratic oversight. The Lisbon Treaty will replace comitology with “delegated acts,” which come under parliamentary control.