(b)(1)
EXEMPTION 1 Classified secret matters or national defense or foreign policy.
This exemption protects
from disclosure national security information concerning the national defense
or foreign policy, provided that it has been properly classified in accordance
with the substantive and procedural requirements of an executive order.
(b)(2) EXEMPTION 2 Internal Personnel Rules and Practices. This exemption exempts from mandatory disclosure records "related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency." Courts have interpreted the exemption to encompass two distinct categories of information:
(a) internal matters of a relatively trivial nature--sometimes referred to as "low2" information; and
(b) more substantial internal
matters, the disclosure of which would risk circumvention of a legal
requirement--sometimes referred to as "high 2" information.
(b)(3) EXEMPTION 3 Information Specifically Exempted by Other Statutes. This
exemption incorporates the disclosure prohibitions that are contained in
various other federal statutes. As originally enacted in 1966, Exemption
3 was broadly phrased so as to simply cover information "specifically exempted
from disclosure by statute." The new Exemption 3 statue prohibits
agencies from releasing under the FOIA any proposal "submitted by a contractor
in response to the requirements of a solicitation for a competitive propsals,"
unless that proposal "is set forth or incoprorated by reference in a contract
entered into between the agency and the contractor that submitted the
proposal."
(b)(4)
EXEMPTION 4 Trade Secrets, Commercial or Financial Information. This
exemption protects "trade secrets and commercial or financial information
obtained from a person [that is] privileged or confidential." This exemption
is intended to protect the interest of both the government and submitter
of information.
(b)(5)
EXEMPTION 5 Privileged Interagency or Intra-Agency Memoranda or
Letters. This exemption protects "inter-agency or intra-agency
memorandums of letters which would not be available by law to a party
...in litigation with the agency." As such, it has been construed to
"exempt those documents, and only those documents, normally privileged in
the civil discovery context."
(b)(6)
EXEMPTION 6 Personal Information Affecting an Individual's Privacy.
This exemption permits the government to withhold all information about
individuals in "personnel and medical files and similar files" when the
disclosure of such information " would constitute a clearly unwarranted
invasion of personal privacy." This exemption cannot be invoked to withhold
from a requester information pertaining to the requester.
(b)(7)
EXEMPTION 7 Investigatory Records Compiled for Law Enforcement Purposes.
As amended, this exemption protects from disclosure "records or information
compiled for law enforcement purposes.
(b)
(7) EXEMPTION 7(A) Records or Information that Could Reasonably be Expected
to Interfere with Enforcement Proceedings. This exemption authorizes
the withholding of "records or information compiled for law enforcement
purposes, but only to the extent that production of such law enforcement
records or information ... could reasonably be expected to interfere with
enforcement proceedings."
(b)
(7) EXEMPTION 7(B) Disclosure Which Would Deprive a Person of a Fair Trial
or an Impartial Adjudication. Records that would prevents prejudicial
pretrial publicity that could impair a court proceeding, protects "records
or information compiled for law enforcement purposes [the disclosure of
which] would deprive a person of the right to a fair trial or an impartial
adjudication."
(b)
(7) EXEMPTION 7(C) Personal Information in Law Enforcement Records.
This exemption provides protection for personal information in law enforcement
records. This exemption is the law enforcement counterpart to Exemption
6, providing protection for law enforcement information the disclosure
of which "could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion
of personal privacy."
(b)(7)
EXEMPTION 7 (D) Identity of a Confidential Source. This exemption provides
protection for "records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes
[which] could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential
source --including a State, local, or foreign agency or authority or any
private institution which furnished information on a confidential basis--and,
in the case of a record or information compiled by a criminal law enforcement
authority in the course of a criminal investigation, or by an agency conducting
a lawful national security intelligence investigation, information furnished
by a confidential source."
(b)
(7) EXEMPTION 7(E) Circumvention of the Law. This exemption affords
protection to all law enforcement information which "would disclose techniques
and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would
disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions
if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of
the law."
(b)(7)
EXEMPTION 7(F) Physical Safety to Protect a wide Range of Individuals.
This exemption permits the withholding of information necessary to protect
the physical safety of a wide range of individuals. Whereas Exemption 7(F)
previously protected records that "would ...endanger the life or physical
safety of law enforcement personnel," the amended exemption provides protection
to "any individual when disclosure of information about him or her "could
reasonably be expected to endanger [his/her] life or physical
safety."
(b)(7)
EXEMPTION 8 Records of Financial Institutions. This exemption covers
matters that are "contained in or related to examination, operating, or
condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of an agency
responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial
institutions."
(b)(7) EXEMPTION 9 Geographical and Geophysical Information Concerning Wells. This exemption covers "geological and geophysical information and data, including maps, concerning wells.