Customs cannot withhold Perot records automatically: 'policy' of exempting entire categories narrowed by court ruling

Article Abstract:

The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in The Nation Magazine v. United States Customs Service that the agency's categorical approach to denying access to investigatory files violated the Freedom of Information Act. The magazine attempted to gain access to Customs investigatory files to confirm whether H. Ross Perot had provide them with drug interdiction help. The Customs Service would not say whether the records existed, but said that if they did they would be exempt from disclosure. The court found that the public interest outweighed any remaining privacy interest.

Perot, H. Ross

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Conference suggests making FOIA inapplicable to agency documents prepared for ADR

Article Abstract:

The Administrative Conference of the United States voted to recommend that the Administrative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Act be amended to read that records in dispute resolution proceedings involving the government be exempt from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) disclosure when the materials were generated in anticipation of the proceeding. The ADR Act governs dispute resolution in which the government is a party or a facilitator. The Act was characterized as at odds with FOIA by media representatives who argued against broad exceptions to the FOIA presumptions of disclosure.

Reports, Administrative procedure, United States. Administrative Conference

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State keeps abuse complaint, investigation reports secret

Article Abstract:

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled in Beattie v. Aiken City Department of Social Services that parents that had been investigated for child abuse had no right to access to complaint records. The allegations were determined to be unfounded, but the Beatties believed that the head of the agency initiated the investigation as some form of revenge. The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's denial of access based on a freedom of information exemption but suggested that in camera review by the trial court was not precluded.

South Carolina, Social work, Confidential communications, Child welfare workers

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