In case you missed it, Politico reported last Friday that Jennifer-Ruth Green, a candidate for the U.S. House in Indiana, had received a poor performance review from the Air Force in 2009, and that she had been a victim of sexual assault. Notably, Politico further reported that it had obtained this information through a third party’s FOIA request to the Air Force. Ms. Green has called foul, asserting that the disclosure was illegal. She appears to have a good case. Absent overriding public interest, performance appraisals of federal officials are routinely withheld on privacy grounds pursuant to Exemption 6. See, e.g., Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dep’t of Commerce, 337 F. Supp. 2d 146, 176-177 (D.D.C. 2004); 5 C.F.R. 293.311(a)(6) (OPM regulation excluding performance appraisals from list of personnel information available to public). The Department of Defense’s privacy policies with respect to its service members have traditionally followed or been more stringent than those of the Office of Personnel Management, particularly after September 11, 2001.