United States Fourth Circuit

In a civil action alleging defendant-agencies did not conduct an adequate search for documents requested by plaintiff-law firm under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and that defendant-agencies improperly withheld documents as exempt which were discovered during the search, award of summary judgment to defendant-agencies is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) the district court erred in finding the Vaughn index contained adequate descriptive information to determine whether the challenged documents were properly withheld in whole or in part; 2) the district court did not err in holding the defendant-agencies properly withheld the challenged documents in whole or in part based on the deliberative process privilege; 3) the district court did it err in concluding the challenged redacted documents did not contain segregable material; and 4) the district court did not err in concluding the PTO properly withheld or redacted materials based on the attorney-client privilege, as protected by Exemption 5.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/28/2009
• Published 01/28/2009

Judges

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel