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This paper was presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and
Mass Communication in San Antonio, Texas August 2005.
If you have questions about this paper, please contact the author
directly. If you have questions about the archives, email
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(Feb 2006)
Thank you.
Elliott Parker
====================================================================
When Is an Invasion of Privacy Unwarranted Under the FOIA? An
Analysis of the Supreme Court's "Sufficient Reason" and "Presumption
of Legitimacy" Standards
By
Martin E. Halstuk, Ph.D.
Submitted to the Law Division
of the AEJMC annual conference,
San Antonio, Tex., 2005.
Martin E. Halstuk, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communications and Journalism
The Pennsylvania State University
304-A James Building
University Park, PA 16802-5101
(814) 863-7990
<[log in to unmask]>
When Is an Invasion of Privacy Unwarranted Under the FOIA? An
Analysis of the Supreme Court's "Sufficient Reason" and "Presumption
of Legitimacy" Standards
(Abstract)
By Martin E. Halstuk, Ph.D.
Penn State University
This paper examines a 2004 Supreme Court decision, Favish v. National
Archives Administration, which concerns a FOIA request for the death
scene photos of former Clinton White House Deputy Counsel Vincent
Foster, who committed suicide. The Court held that FOIA's privacy
exemptions extend to Foster's family members and, therefore, the
government could withhold the pictures. This paper concludes that the
Court's recognition of privacy rights for family members of the dead
was not unreasonable. However, this paper also finds that the Court's
test for determining an "unwarranted" invasion of privacy creates a
presumption of nondisclosure that contravenes FOIA's statutory
language and congressional intent.
When Is an Invasion of Privacy Unwarranted Under the FOIA? An
Analysis of the Supreme Court's "Sufficient Reason" and "Presumption
of Legitimacy" Standards
(Abstract)
By Martin E. Halstuk, Ph.D.
Penn State University
This paper examines a 2004 Supreme Court decision, Favish v. National
Archives Administration, which concerns a FOIA request for the death
scene photos of former Clinton White House Deputy Counsel Vincent
Foster, who committed suicide. The Court held that FOIA's privacy
exemptions extend to Foster's family members and, therefore, the
government could withhold the pictures. This paper concludes that the
Court's recognition of privacy rights for family members of the dead
was not unreasonable. However, this paper also finds that the Court's
test for determining an "unwarranted" invasion of privacy creates a
presumption of nondisclosure that contravenes FOIA's statutory
language and congressional intent.
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