Department of Defense v. FLRA, 510 U.S. 487, 13 (1994)

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

Opinion of the Court

did not do so. In the absence of such a provision, respondents rely on the exception for information the disclosure of which would be "required under [FOIA]." § 552a(b)(2). Nowhere, however, does the Labor Statute amend FOIA's disclosure requirements or grant information requesters under the Labor Statute special status under FOIA.7 Therefore, because all FOIA requesters have an equal, and equally qualified, right to information, the fact that respondents are seeking to vindicate the policies behind the Labor Statute is irrelevant to the FOIA analysis. Cf. Reporters Comm., 489 U. S., at 771-772.

In her concurring opinion in FLRA v. Department of

Treasury, Financial Management Serv., 884 F. 2d 1446 (CADC 1989), cert. denied, 493 U. S. 1055 (1990), then-Judge Ginsburg cogently explained why we must reject respondents' central argument:

"The broad cross-reference in 5 U. S. C. § 7114(b)(4)—'to the extent not prohibited by law'—picks up the Privacy Act unmodified; that Act, in turn, shelters personal records absent the consent of the person to whom the record pertains, unless disclosure would be required under the [FOIA].

"Once placed wholly within the FOIA's domain, the union requesting information relevant to collective bargaining stands in no better position than members of the general public. True, unions have a special interest in identifying and communicating with persons in the bar-7 In this regard, see Department of Veterans Affairs, 958 F. 2d, at 512 ("Nowhere in the [Labor Statute] does its language indicate that the disclosure calculus required by FOIA should be modified. Nowhere do we find a qualification that the policies of collective bargaining should be integrated into FOIA"); Department of Treasury, 884 F. 2d, at 1453 ("Privacy Act exception b(2) speaks only of FOIA. We do not believe we are entitled to engage in the sort of imaginative reconstruction that would be necessary to introduce collective bargaining values into the [FOIA] balancing process").

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