Animal Legal Defense Fund v. U.S. Dep't of Agric.
Animal Legal Defense Fund v. U.S. Dep't of Agric.
Opinion of the Court
The Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") provides for expedited processing of records where "failure to obtain requested records on an expedited basis ... could reasonably be expected to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual."
I. Background
Plaintiff-Appellant Animal Legal Defense Fund ("ALDF") is a non-profit organization dedicated to using the legal system to improve the lives and promote the interests of animals.
Since 2014, ALDF had been involved in state court litigation concerning a tiger named Tony who was being displayed in a *1091cage at a Louisiana truck stop. In March 2017, ALDF learned from a veterinarian with special expertise in tigers that Tony was suffering from serious health issues. On April 7, 2017, ALDF asked USDA to carry out an Animal Welfare Act ("AWA") inspection to ascertain whether Tony was getting adequate care. USDA responded on April 10 in a letter stating, "If you wish to know the results of our findings, you must send a request, in writing, to our Freedom of Information Act Office." AWA inspection reports had previously been posted on USDA's website. However, following a policy change in February 2017, inspection reports that have not received final adjudication are available only by FOIA request. See USDA Announcement, Updates to APHIS' Website Involving Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act Compliance Information (Feb. 15, 2017).
ALDF submitted a FOIA request on May 4, 2017, for records concerning its inspection request. ALDF sought expedited processing of its request pursuant to
On July 11, 2017, ALDF filed a complaint in district court challenging USDA's practice of denying requests for expedited processing of AWA-related FOIA requests. The complaint sought a declaration that the term "individual" in § 552(a)(6)(E)(v)(I) includes an animal, and a permanent injunction requiring USDA to treat animals as "individuals" for the purposes of expedited processing under the statute.
While the case was pending, ALDF made additional FOIA requests for expedited processing of USDA records related to animals protected under the AWA. On July 20, 2017, ALDF requested expedited processing of records related to the Puerto Rico Zoo. On the same day, ALDF requested expedited processing of records regarding arctic foxes living at Deer Haven Mini Zoo in Maryland. On August 18, 2017, ALDF requested expedited processing of records pertaining to Cricket Hollow Zoo, a roadside zoo in Iowa. USDA rejected the first two requests on the ground that "the term individual in this context encompasses human beings and not animals" and had not responded to the third request at the time the record was made in this appeal.
In response to ALDF's request for records about Tony, USDA released four pages of responsive records on August 14, 2017, over three months after the request was made. A month and a half later, on October 3, 2017, USDA informed ALDF that it had located additional records responsive to ALDF's request and would release the records by October 20, 2017. On October 16, 2017, the truck stop owner euthanized Tony. Four days later, USDA provided forty-three pages of records to complete its response to ALDF's FOIA request regarding Tony.
The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment to USDA on May 25, 2018, holding that the term "individual" in FOIA's expedited processing provision does not include animals. ALDF timely appealed.
II. Jurisdiction
We ordinarily have jurisdiction under
In the district court, USDA argued that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the suit for two reasons: first, that the case was moot and no longer a case or controversy under Article III and, second, that FOIA's jurisdiction-stripping provision applied. The district court disagreed and held that it had jurisdiction. USDA does not contest this ruling on appeal. However, "we are obliged to raise sua sponte issues concerning district courts' subject matter jurisdiction." Randolph v. Budget Rent-A-Car ,
A case is moot if "the issues presented are no longer 'live' or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome." Powell v. McCormack ,
In FOIA cases, we distinguish between "specific request" claims and "pattern or practice" claims. Hajro v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs. ,
A "specific request" claim is mooted by the agency's production of all non-exempt requested records.
Though we conclude on the merits that no FOIA violation occurred, the violations that ALDF alleges meet the three prongs of Hajro 's "pattern or practice" test. First, the FOIA violation alleged with respect to Tony was not an isolated incident. ALDF alleges other instances in which USDA denied expedited processing to ALDF based on USDA's definition of "individual." See id. at 1104 (noting that a plaintiff can satisfy the first prong by "provid[ing] evidence that he has been subjected to a FOIA violation more than once"). Second, ALDF was "personally harmed" because it filed several requests and was denied expedited processing on the basis of the challenged policy. See id. at 1106 (holding that prong two is met if the plaintiff "personally filed a request, and that request was delayed"). Third, ALDF is likely to be harmed in the future by USDA's policy. ALDF's mission centers *1093on animal welfare, and ALDF is likely to make future FOIA requests where it believes there is "an imminent threat to the life or physical safety" of an animal. See id. (holding that the third prong is met if the plaintiff "will likely file more FOIA requests with [the agency] in the future"). We therefore hold that the case is not moot.
USDA also argued below that FOIA's jurisdiction-stripping provision divested the district court of jurisdiction. That provision states, "A district court of the United States shall not have jurisdiction to review an agency denial of expedited processing of a request for records after the agency has provided a complete response to the request."
III. Discussion
We review de novo a district court's grant of summary judgment in a FOIA case. See ALDF v. FDA ,
This case turns on the meaning of the word "individual" as used in FOIA's expedited processing provision. FOIA requires agencies to provide for expedited processing of records requests if the requestor "demonstrates a compelling need."
"When a statute does not define a term, we typically 'give the phrase its ordinary meaning.' " FCC v. AT & T Inc. ,
The Supreme Court considered in Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority ,
Other broadly applicable legislative enactments further corroborate this understanding. The Dictionary Act, which offers guidance for "determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, unless the context indicates otherwise,"
ALDF argues that dictionaries also define "individual" as "a particular being or thing as distinguished from a class, species, or collection" and that this definition encompasses an animal. See, e.g. , MERRIAM-WEBSTER ONLINE DICTIONARY (last visited August 5, 2019). Certainly, "individual" can be used to refer to an animal in this manner. But when a speaker or writer intends this meaning of the word, the sentence or its context ordinarily specifies a corresponding class, species, or collection of animals. ALDF cites a dictionary example of "individual" used in this manner: "The markings on tigers are unique to each individual ." (Emphasis in original). The sentence indicates that the relevant species is tiger , and individual corresponds to a particular example of that species-a tiger.
By contrast, where no species or group is indicated, the ordinary inference is that the group is "human beings." This usage is included in the Oxford English Dictionary Online , whose second definition under noun reads, "In contexts where a group is not specified or implied: a human being, a person." OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY ONLINE (Last visited August 5, 2019). FOIA's expedited processing provision, which refers to "the life or physical safety of an individual," is a "context[ ] where a group is not specified." See
As the Supreme Court recognized in Mohamad , "Congress remains free, as always, to give the word ['individual'] a broader or different meaning."
ALDF offers several statutory construction arguments to support its position that "individual," as used in § 552(a)(6)(E)(v)(I), includes animals. None is persuasive.
First, ALDF argues that we should liberally construe the expedited processing provision to be consistent with FOIA's goal of broad disclosure. It is true that FOIA has the "express purpose to mandate a policy of broad disclosure of *1095government documents and maximum feasible public access to government information." Rosenfeld v. United States ,
While FOIA as a whole favors broad disclosure, the expedited processing provision serves the narrower purpose of prioritizing certain requests over others. The legislative history of § 552(a)(6)(E) reveals a concern that "[g]iven the finite resources generally available for fulfilling FOIA requests, unduly generous use of the expedited processing procedure would unfairly disadvantage other requestors who do not qualify for its treatment." H.R. REP. No. 104-795, at 26 (1996); see also Al-Fayed v. CIA ,
Second, ALDF argues that excluding animals from the definition of "individual" in § 552(a)(6)(E)(v)(I) is inconsistent with the Animal Welfare Act and other statutes protecting animals. ALDF contends that if animals fall outside the expedited processing provision's definition of an "individual," AWA records will virtually never qualify for expedited processing. ALDF argues that Congress could not have intended to "gut" FOIA with respect to such records. Similarly, ALDF argues that its definition of "individual" is consistent with Congress's broader goal to protect the welfare of animals through statutes like the AWA and the ESA. It argues that because Congress protects the lives and physical safety of animals in those contexts, it must also have intended to protect them for purposes of the expedited processing provision.
We do not deny that animal welfare is an important goal that has been recognized by Congress in a variety of statutes. It has not, however, been recognized in FOIA's expedited processing provision. Congress chose to limit the definition of "compelling need" to prioritize certain records for expedited processing-specifically, records whose delayed release would pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of a human being. ALDF may disagree with Congress's policy choice. But we are not at liberty to override congressional intent and read a statutory term contrary to its plain meaning.
Finally, ALDF argues that we should read § 552(a)(6)(E)(v)(I) to correspond to what it contends is the proper construction of an almost identical phrase in one of FOIA's exemptions, codified at § 552(b)(7)(F). Exemption 7(F) allows an agency to withhold law enforcement records "to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information ... could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual."
*1096"Any individual," as used in Exemption 7(F), has been read broadly in the sense that it applies to a wide range of people, such as confidential informants and potential victims of terrorist activity. See DEP'T OF JUSTICE, GUIDE TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: EXEMPTION 7F (2019) (collecting cases). During the 1986 amendments to FOIA, the closing language of Exemption 7(F) was altered from "the life or physical safety of law enforcement personnel" to the current language of "the life or physical safety of any individual." Pub. L. No. 99-570, § 1802(a),
But Exemption 7(F) has never been applied to withhold records because of a threat to an animal. Nor could it be. As discussed above, the plain meaning of "individual," absent a context signifying otherwise, is "a human being, a person." See OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY ONLINE . Congress has not indicated that Exemption 7(F) refers to individuals of any other species. FOIA exemptions should be "construed narrowly" in light of FOIA's pro-disclosure purpose. See Theriault, v. United States ,
Conclusion
FOIA provides for expedited processing of records if "failure to obtain [the] requested records on an expedited basis ... could reasonably be expected to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual[.]"
AFFIRMED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ANIMAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
- Cited By
- 21 cases
- Status
- Published