U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv. v. Sierra Club (U.S.) -- in 7-2 decision, ruling that agency properly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold draft biological opinions that were prepared by lower-level staff and never approved by decisionmakers or sent to EPA as it requested per Endangered Species Act.
Rocky Mountain Wild, Inc. v. U.S. Forest Serv. (D. Colo.) -- finding that agency performed reasonable for records pertaining to Village at Wolf Creek project and that it properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 4, 5, and 6. Of note, agency telephone conference line numbers and access codes were held to be protected under Exemption 5’s “commercial” privilege.
Farmworker Justice v. USDA (D.D.C.) -- in case involving records of agency’s H-2A visa program, determining that: (1) agency improperly relied on Exemption 4 to withhold company CEO’s views on proposed legislation, because the same information was shared with an organization with membership of 265,000 people; (2) agency’s declaration and brief were too conclusory to justify Exemption 5 claims, and agency failed to articulate a specific foreseeable harm connected to the redacted records.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.