| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | FOMC issues advisory reports about the money supply to advise the Federal Reserve, and these don't become public until the next one is issued. |
| Posture: | Merril files FOIA requests for the documents. |
| Issue: | Does FOIA Exemption 5 cover this information? |
| Holding: | Not to the extent that release should be suppressed overall, but release should be delayed. |
| Rule: | Exemption 5 is like FRCP 26(c)(7) which protects against premature disclosure. |
| Reasoning: | Sort of like the emergency doctrine: it would be harmful to release the information. There's not much legal reasoning here-- it seems just a balancing of interests |
| Dicta: | Stevens (dissenting): there's no middle ground in the statute. It's either release the info or don't release it. The court isn't free to make up this "delayed-release" stuff. |