United States Department of State v. Ray

Summary

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Stevens, held that FOIA Exemption 6 permitted the State Department to redact identifying information from reports of confidential interviews with Haitian returnees. Disclosure would significantly invade the interviewees’ privacy, while the released summaries adequately served the public interest in evaluating the Department’s monitoring activities. Speculation about additional information obtainable through further interviews or unsupported allegations of government dishonesty did not justify disclosure. Justice Scalia, joined by Justice Kennedy, concurred in part and in the judgment, declining to join Part III because it considered downstream consequences of disclosure while reserving whether derivative uses could count on the public-interest side. He considered the information directly revealed sufficient to establish the privacy invasion. Justice Thomas did not participate.