NY State Court: Agencies Must Prove Privacy Exemptions in FOIA Requests
A government agency trying to withhold information from the public on privacy grounds has the burden of proving release of the records would create an "unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," New York state's highest court ruled Tuesday. The Court of Appeals decision came in the case of Data Tree LLC, a commercial online provider of public land records that sought a huge volume of data from the Suffolk County Clerk through a Freedom of Information Law request in 2004.
Court: Agencies must prove privacy exemptions in info requests, Associated Press, December 18, 2007.
