Nicolaus

Nicolaus v. Federal Bureau of Investigation

Good Law
24 F. App'x 807
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitDecember 20, 2001No. 00-17067; D.C. No. CV-95-03614-WHOCalifornia298 words

Opinion

Lead Opinion

MEMORANDUM *

Robert Henry Nicolaus appeals the district court’s dismissal of his action for injunctive relief against the Federal Bureau of Investigation, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 (“FOIA”), and the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a. We affirm. Because the parties are familiar with the factual and procedural history of this case, we will not recount it here.

In a FOIA case, we must first determine “whether the district judge had an adequate factual basis for [its] decision, and if not, remand.” Fiduccia v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 185 F.3d 1035, 1040 (9th Cir.1999). If there is an adequate factual basis, we may reverse the district court’s decision only for clear error. Id.

We conclude that the district court had an adequate factual record to review the FBI’s rationale for withholding and redacting documents under FOIA. The FBI supplied two Vaughn indices and several exhaustive declarations. The indices and declarations identified each document withheld or redacted and the statutory exemption claimed, and they provided particularized explanations of how disclosure of the particular document would damage the interest protected by the claimed exemption.…

Sign in to read the full opinion

Create a free account to read the complete opinion text, citation history, and good-law status for this case.