Cite as: 508 U. S. 165 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
ment acknowledges that its proposed presumption, though rebuttable in theory, is in practice all but irrebuttable. Tr. of Oral Arg. 22-23. Once the FBI asserts that information was provided by a confidential source during a criminal investigation, the requester—who has no knowledge about the particular source or the information being withheld—very rarely will be in a position to offer persuasive evidence that the source in fact had no interest in confidentiality. See Dow Jones & Co. v. Department of Justice, 286 U. S. App. D. C., at 355, 917 F. 2d, at 577.
The Government contends that its presumption is supported by the phrase "could reasonably be expected to" and by our decision in Department of Justice v. Reporters Comm. for Freedom of Press, 489 U. S. 749 (1989). In Reporters Committee we construed Exemption 7(C), which allows the Government to withhold law enforcement records or information the production of which "could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." 5 U. S. C. § 552(b)(7)(C). We held that certain criminal "rap sheet" information was categorically exempt from disclosure because the release of such information invariably constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy. 489 U. S., at 780. Our approval of a categorical approach was based in part on the phrase "could reasonably be expected to," which Congress adopted in 1986 to ease the Government's burden of invoking Exemption 7, see id., at 756, n. 9, and to "replace a focus on the effect of a particular disclosure 'with a standard of reasonableness . . . based on an objective test,' " id., at 778, n. 22 (quoting S. Rep. No. 98-221, p. 24 (1983)). As explained more fully in Part III, below, we agree with the Government that when certain circumstances characteristically support an inference of confidentiality, the Government similarly should be able to claim exemption under Exemption 7(D) without detailing the circumstances surrounding a particular interview. Neither the
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