D.C.District Court Ruling Could Aid NRDC's Trash TMDL Deadline Push

摘要

The Justice Department (DOJ) is urging the Supreme Court to overturn an appellate ruling requiring the release of draft documents related to the development of EPA's cooling water intake rule, arguing the appeals court made several errors in finding the documents could be released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The court of appeals' reasoning "would severely undermine Congress's purposes in incorporating the deliberative process privilege into FOIA," and could result in agency personnel losing confidence that they could be candid in pre-decisional recommendations, DOJ says in its opening merits brief in United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), et al. v. Sierra Club.