Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/323

 502us1$14I 08-21-96 15:27:02 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 164 (1991)

165

Syllabus (a) In order to determine whether petitioner has met its burden of justifying the redaction, the individual’s right of privacy must be balanced against the FOIA’s basic policy of opening agency action to the light of public scrutiny. Department of Air Force v. Rose, 425 U. S. 352, 372. Pp. 173–175. (b) The privacy interest at stake in this case is more substantial than the Court of Appeals recognized. The invasion of privacy from summaries containing personal details about particular returnees, while de minimis when the returnees’ identities are unknown, is significant when the information is linked to particular individuals. In addition, disclosure would publicly identify the returnees, possibly subjecting them or their families to embarrassment in their social and community relationships or to retaliatory action that might result from a renewed interest in their aborted attempt to emigrate. The lower court also gave insufficient weight to the fact that the interviews were conducted pursuant to an assurance of confidentiality, since the returnees might otherwise have been unwilling to discuss private matters and since the risk of mistreatment gives this group an additional interest in assuring that their anonymity is maintained. Finally, respondents’ intent to interview the returnees magnifies the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of their identities. Pp. 175–177. (c) The public interest in knowing whether petitioner has adequately monitored Haiti’s compliance with the assurance has been adequately served by disclosure of the redacted interview summaries, which reveal how many returnees were interviewed, when the interviews took place, the interviews’ contents, and details about the returnees’ status. The addition of the redacted information would shed no further light on petitioner’s conduct of its obligation. Pp. 177–178. (d) The question whether the “derivative use” of requested documents—here, the hope that the information can be used to obtain additional information outside the Government files—would ever justify release of information about private individuals need not be addressed, since there is nothing in the record to suggest that a second set of interviews would produce any additional relevant information. Nor is there a scintilla of evidence that tends to impugn the integrity of the interview reports, and, therefore, they should be accorded a presumption of legitimacy. Pp. 178–179. 908 F. 2d 1549, reversed. Stevens, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and White, Blackmun, O’Connor, and Souter, JJ., joined, and in all but Part III of which Scalia and Kennedy, JJ., joined. Scalia, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in