Usdoc

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

INTER-COOPERATIVE EXCHANGE, an No. 20-35171 Alaska cooperative corporation, Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 3:18-cv-00227- v. TMB

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF

COMMERCE; NATIONAL OCEANIC OPINION

AND ATMOSPHERIC

ADMINISTRATION; NATIONAL

MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Alaska Timothy M. Burgess, Chief District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted November 8, 2021 Seattle, Washington

Filed June 7, 2022

Before: Ronald M. Gould, Richard C. Tallman, and Patrick J. Bumatay, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Bumatay; Dissent by Judge Tallman INTER-COOPERATIVE EXCHANGE V. USDOC

SUMMARY *

Freedom of Information Act

The panel reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to federal defendants in a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) action brought by Inter-Cooperative Exchange (“ICE”), a cooperative of fishers who harvest and deliver crab off the coast of Alaska, seeking the government’s communications concerning the government’s…