The U.S. Supreme Court may decide this week whether to take up the case of Buckley v. DOJ, which centers on how broadly FOIA Exemption 7 should be applied. Buckley, whose bookstore events in Buffalo, NY were monitored by undercover FBI agents, sought records about himself and others, but the FBI withheld most of them under Exemption 7.
On appeal, the Second Circuit affirmed a per se rule that courts need not examine whether records were compiled for a legitimate law enforcement purpose when they come from a law enforcement agency. In a certiorari petition backed by an amicus brief from the Cato Institute, Buckley argues that courts should not apply that per se rule and instead should require a showing that records were actually compiled for a law enforcement purpose.
Stay tuned for the Supreme Court’s cert decision.
See the case docket on SCOTUSblog here.