Case Detail
Case Title | GREENSPAN v. BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
District | District of Columbia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
City | Washington, DC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Case Number | 1:2021cv01968 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date Filed | 2021-07-20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date Closed | 2022-12-01 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Judge | Judge Trevor N. McFadden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Plaintiff | AARON GREENSPAN 956 Carolina Street San Francisco, CA 94107 415-670-9350 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Case Description | Aaron Greenspan, a data journalist, who runs the website PlainSite, submitted two FOIA requests to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for emails from chairman Jerome Powell that mentioned the word "bubble." Greenspan also requested a fee waiver. The agency acknowledged receipt of the requests but after hearing nothing further from the agency, Greenspan filed suit. Complaint issues: Failure to respond within statutory time limit, Public Interest Fee Waiver, Litigation - Attorney's fees | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Defendant | BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Documents | Docket Complaint Complaint attachment 1 Complaint attachment 2 Complaint attachment 3 Complaint attachment 4 Opinion/Order [17] FOIA Project Annotation: Judge Trevor McFadden has ruled that the Federal Reserve properly applied Exemption 4 (commercial and confidential) and Exemption 5 (privileges) to withhold most of the responsive emails from Chairman Jerome Powell containing the keywords "bubble" and "tantrum" in specific contexts in response to two FOIA requests from data journalist Aaron Greenspan, who runs the website PlainSite. Greenspan narrowed his requests to emails using the word "bubble" in the context of "the housing market, stock market, debt, dot-com, asset, and credit bubbles." He narrowed his second request using the word "tantrum" in the context of "any previous or future 'taper tantrum' referring to the tapering of bond purchases, otherwise known as 'Quantitative Easing' or 'QE')." The agency's search yielded 1,600 responsive records. The agency disclosed a few emails but withheld the majority of them under the deliberative process privilege and another handful under Exemption 4. Greenspan sued and asked for a fee waiver. The agency granted his request for a fee waiver and released 14 records responsive to his "bubble" request with redactions. The agency also told Greenspan that it was withholding 963 pages of records responsive to his "bubble" request. The Federal Reserve also released three records responsive to Greenspan's "tantrum" request and withheld 693 responsive pages under Exemption 4 and 5 as well as Exemption 6 (invasion of privacy). In total the agency claimed Exemption 5 for over 1600 pages and Exemption 4 for ten pages. Greenspan challenged only the agency's withholdings under Exemption 4 and Exemption 5. McFadden explained that the agency had to show that the exemptions applied to the withheld material and that disclosure would cause foreseeable harm if disclosed. McFadden first addressed whether the Federal Reserve had appropriately applied Exemption 4. McFadden found that it had. He noted that the withheld records had been submitted by two companies â€" MacroPolicy Perspectives, LLC, a macroeconomics research firm, and Tudor Investment Corporation, a global investment firm. The companies also asserted a commercial interest in the records. And, McFadden noted that "the withheld emails are 'confidential' because the two firms assert they would not customarily make such information public." Greenspan argued that Tudor had not shown that it always keeps such information confidential. However, McFadden indicated that "but that is not the test. Rather, the Board must show that the withheld communication contains information that Tudor has 'customarily and actually treated as private.' That Tudor sometimes discloses other macroeconomic information â€" which it does 'only in limited circumstances and for strategic reasons' â€" does not defeat its claims that it customarily and actually treated the withheld information as private." McFadden then agreed with the agency that it had adequately shown that disclosure would cause foreseeable harm. Turning to the deliberative process privilege claims under Exemption 5, McFadden noted that "most documents the Board withheld are emails and attachments sent among Board staff, other Board Members, and Powell. These communications are intra-agency because Board members and staff exchanged them and did not disclose them publicly." On several occasions, Greenspan contended that records were not deliberative because they did not relate to any actual decision. In response, McFadden pointed out that "the D.C. Circuit has recognized that an agency need not pinpoint an ultimate decision to which the document contributes to assert the privilege. Indeed, 'any requirement of a specific decision after the creation of the document would defeat the purpose of the exemption' because 'the author could not know whether the decision-making process would lead to a clear decision, establishing the privilege or fizzle, defeating it.'"
Issues: Exemption 4 - Confidential business information, Exemption 5 - Privileges - Deliberative process privilege - Predecisional, Exemption 5 - Privileges - Deliberative process privilege - Deliberative | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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