FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: FERC wins Exemption 6 case at D.C. Circuit

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

DC Circ. Sides With FERC Over Nonprofit's FOIA Suit

By Clark Mindock, Law360, Dec. 20, 2021

The D. C. Circuit has said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission need not provide more than the initials and street names of property owners potentially impacted by a now-discontinued pipeline project, rejecting a nonprofit's claims that full names were necessary. A three-judge panel said Friday that the Niskanen Center had failed to identify an overriding public interest that would compel the federal agency to disclose the full names and addresses of landowners who own property along the pipeline's path since the nonprofit would've been able to figure out those contacts from the offered information. While the Niskanen Center had argued the Freedom. . .

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Copy of decision here.