ACLU of N. Cal. v. FBI, 881 F.3d 776 (9th Cir. 2018) (Hurwitz, J.)

1. ACLU of N. Cal. v. FBI, 881 F.3d 776 (9th Cir. 2018) (Hurwitz, J.)

Re: Request for certain types of training and surveillance records

Disposition: Vacating district court's grant of requester's motion for summary judgment; remanding case

• Exemption 7, Threshold:  The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit "hold[s] that when a FOIA request seeks guidelines and other generalized documents compiled by a law enforcement agency not related to a particular investigation, the government need not link the document to the enforcement of a particular statute in order to claim the protection of Exemption 7."  "Rather, the agency need only establish a rational nexus between the withheld document and its authorized law enforcement activities."  "If such a showing is made, the district court can then determine whether disclosure would cause any of the specific harms identified in Exemptions 7(A)–(F)[.]"  The court reasons that "the FBI can surely compile documents for law enforcement purposes without a pre-existing nexus to the enforcement of a specific federal law."  "It would be anomalous to deny the benefit of the Exemption to documents that plainly meet its facial requirements because, although they apply to the FBI's law enforcement duties, they are not yet tied to a particular investigation conducted pursuant to a particular federal law."  "[The court] express[es] no opinion as to whether the documents at issue in this case meet the Exemption 7 threshold, nor whether those that do are protected from disclosure under Exemptions 7(A)–(F)."  "Rather, [the court] remands for the district court to make such determinations in the first instance."