Stephanie D. Garner
Assistant Legal Counsel
EEOC
Office of Legal Counsel
1801 L Street, NW, 6th floor
Washington, DC 20507
(202) 663-4640
A paper copy of the report may be requested by submitting a written request to:
Stephanie D. Garner
Assistant Legal Counsel
EEOC
Office of Legal Counsel
1801 L Street, NW, 6th floor
Washington, DC 20507
(202) 663-4640
FOIA requests should be made in accordance with the Commission's regulations at 29 C.F.R. 1610.7. The regulations can be accessed on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.eeoc.gov/foia/1610.html
See 29 C.F.R. 1610.4 and the agency's FOIA web page at http://www.eeoc.gov/foia/contacts.html for the EEOC FOIA contacts.
The average response time ranges were 10-25 working days.
Many FY 2004 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests received by the Commission were for materials contained in the Commission's investigative case files that involved charges of discrimination filed pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. 621-633, the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. 206(d), and the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. 12101-213. Sections 706(b) and 709(e) of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-5(b) and 8(e), and section 107 of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. 12117 prohibit Commission employees from making Title VII or ADA charges, conciliation materials, required reports and case file information public. In certain instances, parties to the charge are entitled to access to the disclosable portions of the charge file. An example of non-disclosable material in a charge file would be the internal intra-agency deliberative documents. These documents are generally withheld under the fifth exemption to the FOIA, 5 U.S.C. section 552 (b)(5).
The exemption 3 statutes relied on were sections 706(b) and 709(e) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-5(b) and 8(e) and section 107 of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. 12117. These sections prohibit Commission employees from making Title VII or ADA charges, conciliation materials, required reports and case file information public.
The Commission's use of the third exemption has been upheld by the courts. The landmark case supporting the Commission's position is EEOC v. Associated Dry Goods Corp., 449 U.S. 590 (1981). In FY 2004, there were three court cases involving EEOC's use of this exemption. The cases were Michael Graves v. EEOC, Civil Action No. 02-CZ-6306, Michael Graves v. EEOC, Civil Action No. 02-CZ-6842 and Michael Graves v. John Ashcroft, et.al., Civil Action No. 03-CZ-6599. All three cases are ongoing.
EEOC FOIA regulations can be accessed on the World Wide Web at:
http://eee.eeoc.gov/foia/1610.html
EEOC PA regulations can be accessed on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.eeoc.gov/foia/1611.html
Footnotes
1. Section 83 of the EEOC Compliance Manual provides for access to relevant case files by charging parties, aggrieved persons on whose behalf a charge has been filed and entities against whom charges have been filed, 29 C.F.R. ยง1610.17(d). FOIA requests processed by EEOC field offices are subject to review by the Regional Attorneys. FOIA requests that are converted to Section 83 can usually be processed more expeditiously and some FOIA requesters are amenable to converting their requests to Section 83 for this reason.
This page was last modified on February 1, 2005.