The underlying principle on which FOIA is premised is
disclosure to the
public, every agency is obligated to make available to the public
information
which can be revealed without injury to the public or governmental
interest, or
the interests of private individuals. Information subject to the
Act falls into
three classes of information described in subsection (a) of the
Act:
Agency rules, a description of its organization, and
a
statement of the general method by which its functions are
channeled and
determined, all of which must be published in the Federal Register;
Final opinions and orders made in the adjudication of cases,
and statements
of policy and interpretations which have been adopted by the agency
but which are
not published in the Federal Register, including substantive agency
rules of
general applicability and statements of general policy, final
agency opinions
made in the adjudication of cases, administrative staff manuals
which affect the
public, and an indexing of information required to be made
available to the
public;
All other records of an agency except those records
specifically exempt
from disclosure by one or more of the nine exemptions to the Act,
set forth in
subsection (b) thereof.
Thus, there are nine specific exemptions to disclosure:
National defense and foreign policy information which is
properly
classified;
Information relating solely to internal personnel rules and
practices of
the agency;
Information which is specifically prohibited by another
statute from
disclosure;
Trade secrets, and commercial or financial information
obtained from a
person and privileged or confidential;
Inter- and intra-agency communications which would not be
available by law
to a party other than the agency in litigation with the agency,
e.g.,
pre-decisional advice pertaining to the deliberative process or
attorney work
product prepared in reasonable anticipation of litigation;
Personnel, medical, and similar files, the disclosures of
which would
constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;
Records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes,
but only to
the extent that one or more of six specified forms of harm could
reasonably be
expected to result;
Certain bank records; and
Oil well data.
For a detailed discussion of the FOIA's exemptions and its most
important
procedural aspects, see, Freedom of Information Act Guide & Privacy
Act Overview,
an annual Department of Justice publication available from the
Executive Office
for U.S. Attorneys at (202) 616-6757.