City of Chicago v. U.S. Dept. of Treasury
| Decision Date | 25 April 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-2167.,01-2167. |
| Citation | 287 F.3d 628 |
| Parties | CITY OF CHICAGO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Lawrence Rosenthal (argued), David A. Graver, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Appeals Division, Chicago, IL, for plaintiff-appellee.
Steve Frank (argued), Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Section, Washington, DC, defendant-appellant.
Before BAUER, ROVNER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
The City of Chicago (City) brought an action under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, against the United States Department of Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), seeking certain records maintained by ATF regarding the multiple sales of handguns and the tracing of firearms involved in crimes. Both parties moved for summary judgment on the issue of whether certain FOIA exemptions protected some of the requested data from disclosure. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the City and held that none of the FOIA exemptions permit ATF to withhold any of the requested records. ATF appealed this decision. For the following reasons, we affirm.
On November 12, 1998, the City filed a civil suit against certain manufacturers, distributors and dealers of firearms in Illinois state court. The suit charges those defendants with creating and maintaining a public nuisance in the city by intentionally marketing firearms to city residents and others likely to use or possess the weapons in the city, where essentially possession of any firearm except long-barrel rifles and shotguns is illegal. The suit complains that the defendants' conduct undermines the City's ability to enforce its gun control ordinances and the City's theory of liability rests in part on the defendants' distribution practices. The City seeks injunctive relief, as well as compensatory and punitive damages for the costs that the City incurs as a result of the presence of illegal guns in Chicago.
In furtherance of the City's state court litigation and in order to gain information about local and nationwide firearm distribution patterns, the City sought certain records from ATF. ATF is a criminal and regulatory enforcement agency within the Department of Treasury and is responsible for, among other things, enforcing federal firearms laws, including the Gun Control Act. Under this Act, firearms manufacturers, importers, dealers or collectors are required to keep records of firearm acquisition and disposition and make such records available to ATF under certain circumstances. These records must contain the name, address, date and place of birth, height, weight and race of any firearm transferee without a firearm license. The records also identify the transferred firearm by manufacturer, model and serial number.
ATF maintains these records in comprehensive databases. The City sought information from two particular ATF databases: the Trace Database and the Multiple Sales Database. The Trace Database consists of information compiled when a law enforcement agency contacts ATF and requests that a trace be conducted on a weapon that the law enforcement agency recovered in connection with a crime. ATF then uses the serial number on the weapon to determine its manufacturer. ATF contacts the manufacturer to determine to which dealer or distributor the weapon was sold. The tracing then continues down the line until ATF discovers the name of the individual consumer who purchased the gun. This information is then relayed back to the law enforcement agency that made the initial inquiry, and ATF inputs this data into the Trace Database.
The Multiple Sales Database is compiled of information submitted to ATF by firearm dealers. Pursuant to the mandates of the Gun Control Act, when a nonlicensed individual purchases more than one gun from the same dealer within a five day period, the dealer is required to inform ATF. 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(3)(A). ATF then inputs this information into the Multiple Sales Database.
On March 3, 2000, the City submitted a formal FOIA request to ATF, seeking certain records on firearm traces and multiple sales both nationwide and in Chicago from 1992 to the present. On March 8, in response to the City's FOIA request, ATF provided trace data for firearms recovered in Chicago and multiple sales data for the Chicago area for only some of the requested time frame. Eventually, ATF provided the City with some of the requested nationwide records, but still refused to disclose significant information in these records. In particular, ATF withheld all names and addresses of manufacturers, dealers, purchasers and possessors from both the Trace Database and the Multiple Sales Database records. ATF also withheld the weapon recovery locations, serial number and manufacture date from records in the Trace Database. In addition, the purchased weapon serial numbers, weapon types, number of firearms and transaction dates were withheld from the Multiple Sales Database records.
According to ATF, it is agency policy to withhold certain information in both the Trace and Multiple Sales Databases for a certain number of years in order to protect against the possibility of interference with an open or prospective investigation. In addition, ATF withholds indefinitely the individual names and addresses of all firearm purchasers, manufacturers, dealers and importers in both databases for privacy reasons. ATF claims that FOIA Exemptions 6, 7(A) and 7(C) allow for the withholding of this information for privacy and law enforcement purposes.
On June 7, 2000, the City filed suit against ATF in federal district court under FOIA, seeking disclosure of the withheld information. Both parties filed motions for summary judgment, including affidavits in support of their respective positions. The district court ordered a hearing on the issue of whether the FOIA exemptions warranted ATF's withholding of the records. Several witnesses for both parties testified as to these issues at the hearing.
On March 6, 2001, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the City, holding that FOIA requires full disclosure of all requested data to the City because ATF failed to satisfy its burden to demonstrate that the requested information was properly withheld under Exemptions 6, 7(A) or 7(C). In the alternative, the district court held that even if the identity of specific individuals or weapons falls within the scope of any FOIA exemption, this information is reasonably segregable from the remainder of the records and ATF could easily delete or encrypt the sensitive portions while maintaining the integrity of the remainder of the information. ATF appeals this decision.
ATF challenges the district court's decision to grant the City's motion for summary judgment. We review the district court's grant of summary judgment with respect to a FOIA request by determining first, whether the district court had an adequate factual basis to make its decision and, if so, whether its decision was clearly erroneous. Solar Sources, Inc. v. United States, 142 F.3d 1033, 1038 (7th Cir.1998). Because both parties in the instant case provided the district court with numerous affidavits, as well as witness testimony at an evidentiary hearing, we conclude that the district court did have an adequate factual basis to make its decision. As such, we will overturn its decision only upon a finding of clear error. Id.
FOIA requires the Department of Treasury, ATF, and other government agencies to make their records available to the public. Its basic purpose is to "ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society." NLRB v. Robbins Tire & Rubber Co., 437 U.S. 214, 242, 98 S.Ct. 2311, 57 L.Ed.2d 159 (1978). In enacting FOIA, Congress sought to "pierce the veil of administrative secrecy and to open agency action to the light of public scrutiny." Rose v. Dept. of Air Force, 495 F.2d 261, 263 (2d Cir.1974). While disclosure is the dominant objective of FOIA, there are a number of exemptions from the statute's broad reach. United States Dept. of Def. v. Fed. Labor Relations Auth., 510 U.S. 487, 494, 114 S.Ct. 1006, 127 L.Ed.2d 325 (1994). Such exemptions are to be narrowly construed in order to further the statute's broad disclosure policy. In Re Wade, 969 F.2d 241, 246 (7th Cir.1992). A government agency bears the burden of justifying a decision to withhold requested information pursuant to a FOIA exemption. Solar Sources, 142 F.2d at 1037.
Among the list of FOIA exemptions, 7(A) shields from disclosure records "compiled for law enforcement purposes but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records ... could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings." 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A). ATF first argues on appeal that the district court erred in failing to recognize that Exemption 7(A), 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A), permits ATF to withhold certain information from the City because such records are sensitive in nature and could potentially interfere with law enforcement proceedings. We disagree.
We note at the outset that ATF is mistaken in its assertion that because it is a government agency the district court was required to give deference to its reasons for non-disclosure. It is true that we do not question the expertise of the agency or its reasons for withholding documents where nothing appears to raise the issue of good faith. Maroscia v. Levi, 569 F.2d 1000, 1003 (7th Cir.1977); In re Wade, 969 F.2d at 246. However, this deference is limited only to situations in which the agency has demonstrated with specificity a logical connection between the information withheld and identified investigations, and where the...
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