Freedom of Information Act

This post was also written by Frederick Lah.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court held that corporations do not have “personal privacy” under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). The decision comes just one year after the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In Citizens United, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 opinion, ruled that a federal law banning corporations and unions from financing political spending was unconstitutional. Many critics of the decision felt that the Court was treating corporations as individual persons, with First Amendment free speech rights. Many of those same critics were concerned that the Court was going to take another step in that direction with the AT&T case.

Instead, the Supreme Court ended up ruling that corporations do not enjoy “personal privacy” under FOIA. Back in 2005, a trade association representing some of AT&T’s competitors submitted a FOIA request for information submitted by AT&T to the FCC during an investigation for alleged overbilling. Under FOIA, federal agencies are exempt from disclosing law enforcement records which could reasonably be expected to constitute an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” While FOIA defines the term “person” to include corporations, it does not define the term “personal.” AT&T argued that it is a corporate citizen with “personal privacy” rights protected by the exemption and that it should therefore be protected from any disclosure that would embarrass it.Continue Reading SCOTUS: Corporations Do Not Have “Personal Privacy” under FOIA