508
Ginsburg, J., concurring in judgment
v. Julian, 486 U. S. 1, 8 (1988). In Tax Analysts, for example, the Court required disclosure of Department of Justice compilations of district court tax decisions to the publishers of Tax Notes, a weekly magazine. That disclosure did not notably "ad[d] . . . to public knowledge of Government operations." 492 U. S., at 156-157 (Blackmun, J., dissenting) (required disclosure "adds nothing whatsoever to public knowledge of Government operations").
Just as the FOIA requester confronts no "core purpose" obstacle at the outset, no such limitation appears in the text of any FOIA exemption. The exemption asserted in this case, for example, provides that an agency may withhold information if disclosure "would constitute a clearly unwar-ranted invasion of personal privacy." 5 U. S. C. § 552(b)(6). It is fully consistent with this statutory language to judge an invasion of personal privacy "warranted," courts held pre-Reporters Committee, even if the disclosure sought is unrelated to informing citizens about Government operations. Courts, on the issue before us, found disclosure in order because the information was deemed necessary by the expert Authority to vindicate an interest specifically identified by Congress in the Labor Statute—the interest in promoting federal-sector collective bargaining.
Such an interpretation is reconcilable with a main rule that the identity and particular purpose of the requester is irrelevant under FOIA. See ante, at 496. This main rule serves as a check against selection among requesters, by agencies and reviewing courts, according to idiosyncratic estimations of the request's or requester's worthiness. In the matter at hand, however, it is Congress that has declared the importance of the request's purpose, and Congress that has selected a single entity—the employees' exclusive bargaining representative—as entitled to assert that purpose. Allowing consideration of the public interest Congress has recognized would distinguish among potential requesters on the basis of the interest they assert, not simply their identity or
Page: Index Previous 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007