Military trial information to remain sealed from FOIA requests
Jan 18th, 2008 by Rob
The U.S. Court of Appeals has denied public access to information pertaining to military trial proceedings recorded in documents received by the government from outside consultants.
The National Institute of Military Justice, a “non-partisan organization” seeking to “advance the fair administration of military justice and foster improved public understanding of the military justice system,” brought suit against the U.S. Department of Defense in November in response to a denied Freedom-of-Information request the group entered in 2004. The group had requested access to communications between the DOD and several nongovernment attorneys regarding the drafting of guidelines for military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay.
(The language of the FOIA restricts the release of internal or “inter-agency” communications, but there have been challenges as to whether outside consultants can be considered “internal”).
The court in the present case ruled that the outside lawyers, despite not being part of the government itself, were conducting official business and were thus exempted from FOIA access. One judge dissented, and the NIMJ may consider an appeal.
The heart of the issue in this case is the perceived level of transparency in the government’s outside business, and the extent to which it may keep such conversations closed to the public.
