National Labor Relations Board v. Sears, Roebuck & Co.
United States Supreme Court
421 U.S. 132 (1975)
Relevant factsFree
Sears, Roebuck & Co. (plaintiff) requested under FOIA that the NLRB General Counsel (defendant) disclose five years of Advice and Appeals Memoranda on a particular labor-law issue; the General Counsel refused, characterizing all such memoranda as protected intra-agency deliberative material under FOIA Exemption 5. The district court and D.C. Circuit ordered disclosure, and the NLRB appealed to the Supreme Court.
IssueFree
Whether intra-agency memoranda that constitute an agency's final opinions are protected from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.