Van Bourg, Allen, Weinberg & Roger, Plaintiff/appellee/cross-Appellant v. National Labor Relations Board, Defendant/appellant/cross-Appellee

Plaintiff seeks disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) of affidavits and agency memoranda relating to terminated unfair labor practice proceedings. The NLRB resists disclosure under Exemptions 5, 7(A), 7(C) and 7(D) of the Act. Upon cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court ordered three affidavits disclosed and the remaining documents withheld.

The court did not enter findings of fact or conclusions of law, and the reasons for its decision are not apparent from the record. We are unable to determine which exemption the court applied to each document withheld and what relevant undisputed facts provided the basis for non-disclosure. We are also unable to perceive the legal principles or identify the undisputed facts warranting the conclusion that none of the claimed exemptions applied to each of the documents ordered disclosed. It is unclear, for example, whether the court held one or more of the exemptions inapplicable generically as a matter of law or only inapplicable because of the particular facts pertaining to each document.

When summary judgment has been granted, a statement of the dispositive facts and controlling principles of law is…