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How Safe Is Too Safe? Exemption 7(F) And The Withholding Of Critical Documents, Grant Snyder
How Safe Is Too Safe? Exemption 7(F) And The Withholding Of Critical Documents, Grant Snyder
Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is one of the main tools used by the American public to investigate the actions of its government. Congress created FOIA in an attempt to make most government documents available to the public. Today, the FOIA process favors government withholding. This bias comes from institutional issues in courts’ review of FOIA challenges.
In the environmental and administrative law context, federal agencies use many exemptions to withhold government records from citizen and non-profit groups. Agencies that are tasked with permitting and regulating energy pipelines and other environmentally-sensitive infrastructure now regularly cite Exemption 7(F). These agencies …