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Florida House of Representatives, Honorable T.K. Wetherell, Speaker, Cross-Appellant v. United States Department of Commerce, Cross-Appellee, 961 F.2d 941, 11th Cir. (1992)
Florida House of Representatives, Honorable T.K. Wetherell, Speaker, Cross-Appellant v. United States Department of Commerce, Cross-Appellee, 961 F.2d 941, 11th Cir. (1992)
2d 941
60 USLW 2775
FOIA. After its request was denied, Florida sued the Secretary, seeking
disclosure under the FOIA. Finding that the adjusted block level data did not
fall within the purview of Exemption 5, the district court granted summary
judgment in favor of Florida.
2
The Secretary appeals the district court's order granting summary judgment in
favor of Florida, arguing that the district court erred when it found Exemption 5
inapplicable to the adjusted census data. Florida cross-appeals, contending that
the district court erred in finding that the Secretary did not waive his privilege
under Exemption 5, assuming that he had the privilege in the first place.
Because we find both that (1) the data at issue are covered by Exemption 5 and
(2) the Secretary did not waive this privilege, we reverse.
The Constitution requires that a census be taken every ten years. U.S. Const.
art. I, 2. By statute, Congress requires the Secretary of Commerce to conduct
the census "in such form and content as he may determine." 13 U.S.C. 141(a).
For the 1990 census, the Secretary initially undertook an "actual" census
headcount.1 Basically, the actual headcount involved an enormous mailing of
questionnaires by the Department, as well as a great number of census takers
knocking on a great number of doors.
After the actual headcount was completed, the Secretary considered a Census
Bureau proposal, accompanied with adjusted census data, to statistically adjust
the actual headcount. To arrive at the adjusted census data, the Census Bureau
first conducted a post-census, follow-up, sample survey referred to as a "postenumeration survey" ("PES"). The PES re-surveyed approximately 5,000 block
clusters from across the nation. The blocks2 were selected to ensure that they
included representatives of 1392 different population subgroups known as
"post-strata." These subgroups theoretically reflect the various demographic
components of the entire United States population. The information gathered
from the PES sample blocks was then compared with the information for those
same blocks that was obtained during the actual headcount. By comparing the
results of both surveys, the Bureau developed an adjustment factor which
reflected the extent to which the PES suggested an over or undercount in the
census.
The Bureau then multiplied the number of people from each post-stratum
represented in each populated block (as counted by the actual census) by the
On July 15, 1991, the Secretary issued a final decision determining that the
actual census headcount should not be adjusted based on the statistical
methodology proposed. 56 Fed.Reg. 33,583 (July 22, 1991). The Secretary's
final decision outlines the adjustment methodology considered and includes
statistically adjusted calculations for the state, county, and city levels; it does
not include the adjusted block level data at issue.
Florida points out that the Department did in fact disclose the block level data
at issue under a protective order in City of New York v. United States Dep't of
Commerce, 713 F.Supp. 48 (E.D.N.Y.1989). The protective order limited the
information under pain of contempt to experts and other identified parties in
City of New York. In addition, the Department disclosed half of the adjusted
block level data to Congress; data which Florida eventually obtained.
1. Whether the adjusted block level census estimates at issue in this case are
exempt from disclosure under Exemption 5 of the FOIA.
10
III. DISCUSSION
A. Background
11
12
"[T]he mandate of the FOIA calls for broad disclosure of Government records,
and for this reason [the Supreme Court has] consistently stated that FOIA
exemptions are to be narrowly construed." United States Dep't of Justice v.
Julian, 486 U.S. 1, 8, 108 S.Ct. 1606, 1611, 100 L.Ed.2d 1 (1988) (internal
The Secretary contends that the adjusted block level data may be withheld
based on Exemption 5 of the FOIA. Exemption 5 permits agencies to withhold
"inter-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a
party other than an agency in litigation with the agency." 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5).
The Supreme Court has construed this provision to exempt from disclosure
those documents normally or routinely privileged under the relevant statutory
and case law in the pretrial discovery context. Julian, 486 U.S. at 11, 108 S.Ct.
at 1613; Sears, 421 U.S. at 149, 95 S.Ct. at 1515.
14
In EPA v. Mink, 410 U.S. 73, 93 S.Ct. 827, 35 L.Ed.2d 119 (1973), the
Supreme Court held that Exemption 5 incorporated the rule of discovery
protecting inter-agency predecisional "advisory opinions."3 Today, as was the
case when Mink was decided, predecisional deliberative documents are not
routinely and normally disclosed to a party in litigation with the government.
See, e.g., FTC v. Grolier, Inc., 462 U.S. 19, 27, 103 S.Ct. 2209, 2214, 76
L.Ed.2d 387 (1983); Centifanti v. Nix, 865 F.2d 1422 (3rd Cir.1989); Litton
Indus. v. Lehman Bros. Kuhn Loeb Inc., 125 F.R.D. 51 (S.D.N.Y.1989); N.O.
v. Callahan, 110 F.R.D. 637 (D.Mass.1986); J.R. Norton Co., v. Arizmendi,
108 F.R.D. 647 (S.D.Cal.1985). This privilege against discovery is commonly
referred to as the "deliberative process" privilege.
15
B. Waiver
16
Florida has cross-appealed, arguing that even if the data are privileged under
Exemption 5, the district court erred in finding that the Secretary did not waive
his right to assert the privilege. Florida relies on three discrete disclosures by
the Department to support its waiver argument: (1) disclosure of the data in
City of New York; (2) disclosure of half of the data to Congress; and (3)
disclosure of other data and reasoning in the Secretary's final decision.
17
18
The Department claims that it released the information in City of New York for
discovery purposes only because the court, over the Department's protests,
ordered it disclosed. These protests, not surprisingly, were claims that the
information was protected by the deliberative process privilege. Florida does
not dispute these allegations. We find it difficult to characterize the courtordered disclosure of the data in City of New York as a voluntary waiver of the
Department's privilege in light of the court order, especially considering that
the Department attempted to exercise the very privilege it is supposed to have
waived. If documents are exempt from disclosure under the FOIA, the fact that
they were involuntarily disclosed by means other than the FOIA should not
lead to a finding of waiver.
19
The disclosure to Congress similarly does not sustain a finding of waiver. The
record again reveals that this disclosure was involuntary. A December 10, 1991
letter from Under Secretary Michael R. Darby to the House Subcommittee on
Census and Population makes it clear that the Department was dead set against
releasing this information to Congress. R. 2-37. It was only under the threat of
Congress's power of subpoena that they reluctantly released half the data. The
Subcommittee Chairman's reply letter only confirms the forced nature of the
disclosure.6 The Secretary may not have brought up the privilege to the
Subcommittee, but that is easily understandable since Exemption 5 may not be
exercised against Congress. See 5 U.S.C. 552(c) ("This section [which
includes Exemption 5] is not authority to withhold information from
Congress."). The disclosure to Congress was not voluntary and therefore does
not support a finding of waiver. 7
20
Lastly, Florida argues that the Department waived its privilege when it included
in its notice of final decision adjusted census estimates for the state, county and
city levels, as well as the reasoning behind the estimates. As the Ninth Circuit
stated in Mobil Oil Corp. v. EPA, 879 F.2d 698 (9th Cir.1989), when "[t]here is
no evidence in the record that the documents that are the subject of [the] appeal
were ever revealed ..., [i]mplying a waiver of exemption for these documents
based on the release of related documents ... would be contrary both to the case
law on waiver and to the policies underlying FOIA and its exemptions." Id. at
700.
21
22
Implying
such a waiver [for one document, in a situation where the agency only
disclosed related documents,] could tend to inhibit agencies from making any
disclosures other than those explicitly required by law because voluntary release of
documents exempt from disclosure requirements would expose other documents ...
[to] disclosure. An agency would have an incentive to refuse to release all exempt
documents if it wished to retain an exemption for any documents.
23
24
Florida does not contend that the Secretary released the adjusted block level
data in the final opinion; rather, it merely argues that the Secretary disclosed to
the public related material. The district court did not err in finding no waiver.
C. Exemption 5
1. Deliberative
25
26
the focus of the deliberative process privilege was "on documents reflecting
advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations....' " Id. at 150, 95 S.Ct.
at 1516. Later, in Federal Open Mkt. Comm. v. Merrill, 443 U.S. 340, 99 S.Ct.
2800, 61 L.Ed.2d 587 (1979), the Court explained that the purpose of the
privilege for predecisional deliberations is to ensure that a decisionmaker will
receive the unimpeded advice of his associates.
27
It seems safe to say then that the Supreme Court has never backed away from
the fact/opinion distinction first announced in Mink, although some courts,
including the district court in the present case, have questioned its continuing
vitality. See, e.g., National Wildlife Fed'n v. United States Forest Serv., 861
F.2d 1114, 1118-20 (9th Cir.1988) (disposing of the factual/opinion semantics
debate and adopting a "process-oriented" test8 ); Wolfe v. Department of Health
and Human Services, 839 F.2d 768, 774 (D.C.Cir.1988) ("[T]his court cannot
mechanically apply the fact/opinion test.").
28
The dissatisfaction with this bright line rule evidently arose because of
situations where the disclosure of so called "facts" would nevertheless reveal an
agency's deliberative process. But as the Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia recognizes: The fact/opinion distinction continues to offer a "quick,
clear, and predictable rule of decision for most cases." Quarles v. Department of
Navy, 893 F.2d 390, 392 (D.C.Cir.1990).
29
After noting the uncertain state of the law surrounding the issue of whether a
court should consider the policies behind the FOIA when deciding whether or
not a document is deliberative, the district court disregarded the fact/opinion
distinction and chose to "go beyond the literal definition" of deliberative to
determine "whether [the] granting [of the] privilege [would] fulfill the intent of
the privilege." This approach included the consideration of both the
Department's voluntary and involuntary disclosures. To support its method of
analysis, the district court relied on language culled from Wolfe v. Department
of Health and Human Services, 839 F.2d 768 (D.C.Cir.1988), namely, that
"courts must examine the information requested in light of the policies and
goals that underlie the deliberative process privilege." Id. at 774.
30
For a number of reasons, we believe the district court's approach was incorrect.
First, although the court in Wolfe did not "mechanically apply the fact/opinion
test," the opinion implicitly follows the distinction's dictates and remains true
to the ultimate goal of the test, namely, determining "whether [the information]
reflects the give-and-take of the consultative process." Id. at 774 (quoting
Coastal States Gas Corp. v. Department of Energy, 617 F.2d 854, 866
(D.C.Cir.1980). After examining the information within the context of the
predecisional process, it became clear to the court in Wolfe that the information
was protected partly because it was an opinion:
31 information would disclose that proposals have been made, and that these
The
preliminary recommendations have been accepted or rejected.... This court has
previously noted that the deliberative process privilege ... serves a number or
purposes among which are the protection of subordinates' willingness to provide
decisionmakers with frank opinions and recommendations....
32
33
Second, the district court's additional inquiry into the underlying policies of the
FOIA (which, significantly, included consideration of the Secretary's prior
disclosures) does not follow from the Wolfe decision. Wolfe did not involve a
governmental agency which, prior to plaintiff's request, had voluntarily
disclosed what would have otherwise been exempt information. In essence, the
district court employed a "pseudo-waiver" approach which would have us
distinguish between this case and a hypothetical case in which the Department
had chosen not to voluntarily disclose the reasoning behind its rejected
recommendation. If we were to distinguish between these two scenarios for this
analysis, the very applicability of Exemption 5 would rest on the magnanimity
of the governmental agency. This approach seems to us a poor substitute for a
well-delineated, narrowly construed waiver analysis.
34
35
The approach employed by the district court necessarily examines the very
same policies recognized by the Supreme Court in Mink; policies that were
clearly considered by the Court when it adopted the Exemption 5 fact/opinion
distinction in the first place. Undertaking this inquiry for a second time renders
the fact/opinion standard useless. Stated another way, the Supreme Court has
held that if, looking at the deliberative process as a whole, data can be deemed
advice or opinion, it is necessarily deliberative. To engage in such an additional
analysis contradicts the very premise that the distinction relies on, namely, that
data classified as advice or opinion necessarily involves the deliberative
process. See Chilivis v. SEC, 673 F.2d 1205, 1211 (11th Cir.1982) ("The
exemption has generally been held to encompass ... staff
opinions/recommendations that are part of an agency's deliberative process.");
Sears, 421 U.S. at 151, 95 S.Ct. at 1516-17 ("The quality of a particular agency
decision will clearly be affected by the communications received by the
decisionmaker on the subject of the decision prior to the time the decision is
made.").
36
Essentially, the Supreme Court has set up an entire class of data which is per se
deliberative. It defies reason, as well as Supreme Court precedent, to then go
back and weigh the policies underlying the distinction to decide whether
disclosure would in fact discourage frank discussion in some specific case. The
only inquiry that should be made in deciding whether something should be
denoted opinion, and hence deliberative, is: Does the information reflect the
give-and-take of the consultive process? Coastal States, 617 F.2d at 866; see
also Sears, 421 U.S. at 150, 95 S.Ct. at 1516 (courts should "focus on
documents 'reflecting advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations
comprising part of a process by which governmental decisions and policies are
formulated.' ").
37
Lastly, the Supreme Court has pointed out time and time again that the FOIA
exemptions "are plainly intended to set up concrete, workable standards for
determining whether particular material may be withheld or must be disclosed."
Mink, 410 U.S. at 79, 93 S.Ct. at 832. See also Grolier, 462 U.S. at 27, 103
S.Ct. at 2214 ("[B]y establishing a discrete category of exempt information,
[we implement] the congressional intent to provide 'workable' rules."); Julian,
486 U.S. at 13, 108 S.Ct. at 1614. The fact/opinion distinction continues to be
an efficient and workable standard for separating out what is, and what is not,
deliberative.
2. Fact or Opinion
38
With this in mind, we turn now to the question of whether the adjusted block
level data are factual or opinion.9 The facts of this case are undisputed.
Pursuant to congressional mandate, the Secretary was directed to take a census
in any form or manner he wished. He had choices. He first ordered that a
census be taken in a manner we have referred to as an actual headcount. He
then asked others at the Department to devise a statistical methodology to
estimate the country's population. This led to the creation of a statistical model
which someone other than the ultimate decisionmaker thought would best
40
One reason the information in this case is difficult to classify is because the
data are numbers. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals best illustrated
the amorphous personality of numbers in Quarles v. Department of Navy, 893
F.2d 390 (D.C.Cir.1990):
41
Numbers
have a surface precision that may lead the unsophisticated to think of them
as fixed, and of course some are--Waterloo was fought in 1815. But cost estimates
such as these are far from fixed, as anyone knows who has had two contractors bid
on a home improvement or has compared budget estimates with final costs of a
government project. They derive from a complex set of judgments--projecting needs,
studying prior endeavors and assessing possible suppliers. They partake of just that
elasticity that has persuaded courts to provide shelter for opinions generally.
42
43
44
The district court attempted to distinguish Quarles in two ways. First, it could
not understand how disclosure of the data would chill discussion in light of the
Secretary's candor. As we stated above, the Secretary's candor is not relevant in
determining whether material is deliberative.
45
Second, the district court relies on the reasoning of Assembly of the State of
California v. United States Dep't of Commerce, No. S-91-990 (E.D.Cal. Feb. 7,
47
IV. CONCLUSION
48
"Exemption 5, properly construed, calls for ... the withholding of all papers
which reflect the agency's group thinking in the process of working out its
policy and determining what its law shall be." Sears, 421 U.S. at 153, 95 S.Ct.
at 1517-18. Because the adjusted census block level data are a subordinate's
opinion and reflect the give-and-take of the deliberative process, we hold that
the data are deliberative, and in turn, within the scope of the deliberative
process privilege. We also conclude that the district court did not err in finding
that the Department did not waive its privilege. It follows that the data are
exempt from disclosure pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5).
49
50
Honorable Robert R. Merhige, Jr., Senior U.S. District Judge for the Eastern
District of Virginia, sitting by designation
Since the adjusted block level data have never been adopted by the agency, the
policy of banning secret agency law is not implicated. The Department simply
is not yet using the adjusted numbers in a way that can be described as having
the force and effect of law. Summing up, we do not find that the Department
"expressly adopted" the reasoning and conclusions associated with the adjusted
census figures as its own, as that expression is used in Sears and Grumman.
5
"It is unfortunate that you chose to withhold even a useful amount of the data
until the subcommittee was forced to take the extraordinary step of issuing a
subpoena.... I also conclude ... that the Department now recognizes the
authority of Congress to use the information in any manner it deems
appropriate." R. 2-45
The Department also maintains that a disclosure to Congress never waives the
Exemption 5 privilege. In light of the forced nature of the disclosure, we see no
need to address this additional argument
In contrast to facts, there is good reason to protect opinions and advice. By its
nature, a subordinate's imprimatur is attached to his or her advice, and hence
puts the subordinate out on a limb. We realize that a subordinate's factual
compilation also carries with it his seal of approval. Nevertheless, we believe
that there is a significant difference in the type and degree of risk associated, on
the one hand, with providing an opinion to a superior, and on the other,
supplying factual data to that same person. Clearly, it was the former that
Congress ultimately wanted to protect