Judicial Watch, Inc. v. United States Department of Commerce

The federal district court for the District of Columbia granted summary judgment to the U.S. Department of Commerce in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking documents in the possession of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) related to a study by several NOAA scientists known as the “Hiatus Paper.” The Hiatus Paper found that recent ocean surface temperature increases were greater than other studies had indicated, and that there had been no “hiatus” in ocean warming as some had argued. The court’s decision concerned three sets of documents withheld by NOAA under FOIA’s Exemption 5 for inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters—drafts of the Hiatus Paper, internal correspondence among NOAA scientists about the Hiatus Paper, and outside peer reviewer comments. The court rejected the plaintiff’s contention that the withheld documents were not within Exemption 5’s scope because they concerned science, not policy. The district court said D.C. Circuit precedent resolved this question in NOAA’s favor. The court also found that the plaintiff had not presented evidence “sufficient to raise the specter of such nefarious government misconduct” as would be required to override Exemption 5. (The court also noted that the D.C. Circuit had never held that government misconduct could abrogate Exemption 5.) The district court also found that the Department of Commerce had adequately alleged that it had released all reasonably segregable material and that the plaintiff had provided no evidence to contradict those allegations.

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