506
Ginsburg, J., concurring in judgment
vacy Act to FOIA, and the Court's journey ends in a judgment that disclosure is impermissible.3
The Court convincingly demonstrates that Reporters Committee, unmodified, requires this result. I came to the same conclusion as a judge instructed by the Court's precedent. See FLRA v. Department of Treasury, Financial Mgmt. Service, 884 F. 2d 1446, 1457 (CADC 1989) (concurring opinion), cert. denied, 493 U. S. 1055 (1990), quoted ante, at 499-500. It seemed to me then and seems to me now, however, that Congress did not chart our journey's end. See 884 F. 2d, at 1457-1461.
As this Court has recognized, in enacting the Labor Statute "Congress unquestionably intended to strengthen the position of federal unions." Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms v. FLRA, 464 U. S. 89, 107 (1983). It is surely doubtful that, in the very statute bolstering federal-sector unions, Congress aimed to deny those unions information their private-sector counterparts routinely receive. See, e. g., Prudential Ins. Co. of Am. v. NLRB, 412 F. 2d 77 (CA2), cert. denied, 396 U. S. 928 (1969); see also NLRB v. Wyman-Gordon Co., 394 U. S. 759 (1969) (upholding National Labor Relations Board order requiring employer to disclose names and addresses before election). It is similarly doubtful that Congress intended a privacy interest, appraised by most
3 The Court does not reach the issue whether the "routine use" exception to the Privacy Act, see 5 U. S. C. § 552a(b)(3), might justify disclosure. See ante, at 494, n. 5. The "routine use" exception is not a secure one for the unions, however, because it empowers agencies, in the first instance, to determine which uses warrant the classification "routine," and because courts ordinarily defer to agency assessments of this order. But cf. United States Postal Service v. National Assn. of Letter Carriers, 9 F. 3d 138, 143 (CADC 1993) (opinion of Silberman, J.) (suggesting that National Labor Relations Act disclosure obligations might compel the Postal Service "to publish a routine use notice that would accommodate its duties under that Act").
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