Food Mktg. Inst. v. Argus Leader Media
United States Supreme Court
139 S. Ct. 2356 (2019)
- Written by Jack Newell, JD
Facts
Argus Leader Media (Argus) (plaintiff), a newspaper publisher, submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for data on the food-stamp program. Argus wanted a list of all grocery stores that participated in the program as well as food-stamp redemption data, known as store-level data, for the fiscal years 2005 to 2010. The USDA released a list of participating stores, but it did not release the store-level data, invoking exemption 4 of the FOIA. Exemption 4 allows agencies to withhold commercial information obtained from an individual that is privileged or confidential. Argus sued in federal court. The district court ruled that commercial information was considered confidential only if its disclosure would cause significant competitive harm. The district court also found that harm would be inflicted by release of the information, but that the harm would not be significant. The USDA declined to appeal but invited the Food Marketing Institute to intervene, which it did, appealing to the Eight Circuit. The Eighth Circuit affirmed. The Food Marketing Institute appealed to the Supreme Court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Gorsuch, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 791,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,200 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
