American Civil Liberties Union v. Department of Justice

681 F.3d 61 (2012)

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American Civil Liberties Union v. Department of Justice

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
681 F.3d 61 (2012)

  • Written by Tanya Munson, JD

Facts

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other organizations (plaintiffs) submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Department of Justice (DOJ), and its component Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) (defendants) seeking disclosure of records concerning the treatment of detainees; the deaths of detainees while in United States custody; and the rendition, since September 11, 2001, of detainees and other individuals to countries known to employ torture or illegal interrogation methods. The ACLU and the others filed separate complaints in district court seeking to compel the government to release any responsive documents it had withheld from disclosure. The district court ordered the government to produce or identify such records, and in response, the government disclosed thousands of documents. The government disclosed two memoranda prepared by the OLC but redacted references according to the FOIA Exemptions 1 and 3. The district court ordered that the government either replace the classified information with alternative language or disclose the information in its entirety. The government appealed that order. The district court also ordered the government to compile a list of documents relating to the contents of 92 destroyed videotapes from detainee interrogations that would otherwise have been responsive to the FOIA requests. Included in these documents were records relating to waterboarding and a photograph of high-value detainee Abu Zubaydah in CIA custody. The government again withheld these documents according to FOIA Exemptions 1 and 3. The district court sustained the withholding of the records under FOIA Exemption 3. The ACLU and the others cross-appealed the order.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Wesley, J.)

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