Cite as: 532 U. S. 1 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
selves if each remark is a potential item of discovery and front page news, and its object is to enhance "the quality of agency decisions," id., at 151, by protecting open and frank discussion among those who make them within the Government, see EPA v. Mink, 410 U. S. 73, 86-87 (1973); see also Weber Aircraft Corp., supra, at 802.
The point is not to protect Government secrecy pure and simple, however, and the first condition of Exemption 5 is no less important than the second; the communication must be "inter-agency or intra-agency." 5 U. S. C. § 552(b)(5). Statutory definitions underscore the apparent plainness of this text. With exceptions not relevant here, "agency" means "each authority of the Government of the United States," § 551(1), and "includes any executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government . . . , or any independent regulatory agency," § 552(f).
Although neither the terms of the exemption nor the statutory definitions say anything about communications with outsiders, some Courts of Appeals have held that in some circumstances a document prepared outside the Government may nevertheless qualify as an "intra-agency" memorandum under Exemption 5. See, e. g., Hoover v. Dept. of Interior, 611 F. 2d 1132, 1137-1138 (CA5 1980); Lead Industries Assn. v. OSHA, 610 F. 2d 70, 83 (CA2 1979); Soucie v. David, 448 F. 2d 1067 (CADC 1971). In Department of Justice v. Julian, 486 U. S. 1 (1988), Justice Scalia, joined by Justices O'Connor and White, explained that "the most natural meaning of the phrase 'intra-agency memorandum' is a memorandum that is addressed both to and from employees of a single agency," id., at 18, n. 1 (dissenting opinion). But his opinion also acknowledged the more expansive reading by some Courts of Appeals:
"It is textually possible and . . . in accord with the purpose of the provision, to regard as an intra-agency mem-
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