494
Opinion of the Court
"No agency shall disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person, or to another agency, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains, unless disclosure of the record would be . . . (2) required under section 552 of this title [FOIA]." 5 U. S. C. § 552a(b)(2) (1988 ed. and Supp. IV).
The employee addresses sought by the unions are "records" covered by the broad terms of the Privacy Act. Therefore, unless FOIA would require release of the addresses, their disclosure is "prohibited by law," and the agencies may not reveal them to the unions.5
We turn, then, to FOIA. As we have recognized previously, FOIA reflects "a general philosophy of full agency disclosure unless information is exempted under clearly delineated statutory language." Department of Air Force v. Rose, 425 U. S. 352, 360-361 (1976) (internal quotation marks omitted). See also EPA v. Mink, 410 U. S. 73, 79-80 (1973). Thus, while "disclosure, not secrecy, is the dominant objective of [FOIA]," there are a number of exemptions from the statute's broad reach. Rose, supra, at 361. The exemption potentially applicable to employee addresses is Exemption 6, which provides that FOIA's disclosure requirements do not
5 The written-consent provision of the Privacy Act is not implicated in this case. The unions already have access to the addresses of their members and to those of nonmembers who have divulged this information to them. It is not disputed that the unions are able to contact bargaining unit employees at work and ask them for their home addresses. In practical effect, the unions seek only those addresses that they do not currently possess: the addresses of nonunion employees who have not revealed this information to their exclusive representative.
We also note that we are not asked in this case to consider the potential applicability of any other Privacy Act exceptions, such as the "routine use" exception. See 5 U. S. C. § 552a(b)(3). Respondents rely solely on the argument that the unions' requests for home addresses fall within the Privacy Act's FOIA exception.
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