AT&T Can’t Invoke ‘Personal Privacy’ Exemption in FOIA, Court Rules
AT&T isn’t entitled to “personal privacy” protections of the Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The company acknowledged in 2004 that it may have overbilled the FCC’s E-rate program that year. When CompTel tried to obtain records about the disbursements and payments, AT&T sued to block disclosure, saying FOIA allowed records to be withheld if they violate “personal privacy.” In an 8-0 vote, the justices disagreed. Justice Elana Kagan sat out the case.
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"AT&T’s argument treats the term ‘personal privacy’ as simply the sum of its two words,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion for himself and the seven other colleagues who decided the case. “But two words together may assume a more particular meaning than those words in isolation. We understand a golden cup to be a cup made of or resembling gold. A golden boy, on the other hand is one who is charming, lucky and talented … ‘Personal’ in the phrase ‘personal privacy’ conveys more than just ‘of a person.’ It suggests a type of privacy evocative of human concerns -- not the sort usually associated with an entity like, say, AT&T.”
Roberts said that AT&T claimed it had “common legal usage” on its side but “does not cite a single instance in which this court or any other (aside from the court of appeals below) has expressly referred to a corporation’s ‘personal privacy.’ Nor does it identify any other statute that does so.” The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had sided with AT&T, but CompTel appealed to the Supreme Court. CompTel is “thrilled” with the decision, the group said. “The Court has reaffirmed the important principle that FOIA authorizes liberal disclosure of government records and that the exemptions must be narrowly construed,” the group said. “COMPTEL filed its FOIA request six years ago and is looking forward to finally being able to review the requested records.” AT&T said it “respects” the court’s decision.
Tuesday’s verdict “confirms our commitment to openness in government,” FCC spokesman Rob Kenney said. “It’s a victory for transparency and protects public access to information held by the Commission and other government agencies.” Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the open-government advocate Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said it was “a common sense result. … When you've got the United States Supreme Court pointing out features of grammar and observing basic things about the English language, it’s not something you see every day.”
"The speed with which they [the Justices] came out with it tells me they spotted a bad decision and sought to reverse it quickly to keep it from spreading,” Dalglish said. Her group was approached by the FCC and asked to file an amicus brief, she said. It was the first time her group, which routinely files court briefs in open-government cases, was asked by the federal government for help, she said. The commission isn’t “any better or any worse” than any other federal agency at opening up its records to the public, but the states are still “much more citizen-friendly” than the feds at opening up their records, Dalglish said.