Department of Defense v. FLRA, 510 U.S. 487, 11 (1994)

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Cite as: 510 U. S. 487 (1994)

Opinion of the Court

III

The principles that we followed in Reporters Committee can be applied easily to this case. We must weigh the privacy interest of bargaining unit employees in nondisclosure of their addresses against the only relevant public interest in the FOIA balancing analysis—the extent to which disclosure of the information sought would "she[d] light on an agency's performance of its statutory duties" or otherwise let citizens know "what their government is up to." Reporters Comm., supra, at 773 (internal quotation marks omitted; emphasis deleted).

The relevant public interest supporting disclosure in this case is negligible, at best. Disclosure of the addresses might allow the unions to communicate more effectively with employees, but it would not appreciably further "the citizens' right to be informed about what their government is up to." 489 U. S., at 773 (internal quotation marks omitted). Indeed, such disclosure would reveal little or nothing about the employing agencies or their activities. Even the Fifth

public interest, we held as a categorical matter that such records are excepted from FOIA's broad disclosure requirements by Exemption 7(C). Ibid.

Exemption 7(C) is more protective of privacy than Exemption 6: The former provision applies to any disclosure that "could reasonably be expected to constitute" an invasion of privacy that is "unwarranted," while the latter bars any disclosure that "would constitute" an invasion of privacy that is "clearly unwarranted." Contrary to the view of the court below, see 975 F. 2d, at 1113, however, the fact that Reporters Committee dealt with a different FOIA exemption than the one we focus on today is of little import. Exemptions 7(C) and 6 differ in the magnitude of the public interest that is required to override the respective privacy interests protected by the exemptions. As we shall see in Part III, infra, however, the dispositive issue here is the identification of the relevant public interest to be weighed in the balance, not the magnitude of that interest. Reporters Committee provides the same guidance in making this identification in Exemption 7(C) and Exemption 6 cases. See, e. g., Department of State v. Ray, 502 U. S. 164 (1991) (Exemption 6 case applying Reporters Committee).

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