Bloomberg, L.P. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

09-4083-cv; 09-4097-cv
Bloomberg L.P. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

1 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
2
3 FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
4
5 August Term, 2009
6
7
8 (Argued: January 11, 2010 Decided: March 19, 2010)
9
10 Docket No. 09-4083-cv; No. 09-4097-cv (CON)
11
12 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x
13
14 BLOOMBERG, L.P.,
15
16 Plaintiff-Appellee,
17
18 - v.-
19
20 BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL
21 RESERVE SYSTEM,
22
23 Defendant-Appellant,
24
25 and
26
27 THE CLEARING HOUSE ASSOCIATION L.L.C.,
28
29 Intervenor-Appellant.
30
31 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x
32

33 Before: JACOBS, Chief Judge, LEVAL and HALL,
34 Circuit Judges.
35
36 Defendant Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

37 System appeals from a judgment entered August 24, 2009 in

38 favor of plaintiff Bloomberg, L.P., by the United States

39 District Court for the Southern District of New York
1 (Preska, Ch.J.) compelling disclosure under the Freedom of

2 Information Act of information about loans made by the

3 Federal Reserve Banks. We affirm, holding that the

4 information sought does not fall within the Act’s Exemption

5 4.

6

7 THOMAS H. GOLDEN, Willkie Farr &
8 Gallagher LLP, New York, NY;
9 (Charles J. Glasser, Jr., Global
10 Media Counsel, Bloomberg News,
11 New York on the brief), NY for
12 Plaintiff-Appellee.
13
14 MATTHEW M. COLLETTE (Tony West,
15 Mark B. Stern on the brief),
16 Department of Justice,
17 Washington, D.C.; YVONNE F.
18 MIZUSAWA (Richard M. Ashton,
19 Katherine H. Wheatley on the
20 brief), Board of Governors of
21 the Federal Reserve System,
22 Washington, D.C., for Defendant-
23 Appellant.
24
25 ROBERT J. GIUFFRA, JR. (H.
26 Rodgin Cohen, Michael M.
27 Wiseman, William J. Snipes,
28 Patrice A. Rouse, Erez J. Davy
29 on the brief), Sullivan &
30 Cromwell LLP, New York, NY, for
31 Intervenor-Appellant.
32
33 Melanie Sloan, Anne L. Weismann,
34 Citizens for Responsibility and
35 Ethics in Washington,
36 Washington, D.C., for Amicus
37 Curiae Citizens for
38 Responsibility and Ethics in

2
 1 Washington in support of
2 Plaintiff-Appellee.
3
4 David A. Schulz, Alia L. Smith,
5 Levine Sullivan Koch & Schultz,
6 LLP, New York, NY for Amici
7 Curiae Advanced Publications,
8 Inc., American Society of News
9 Editors, Dow Jones & Company,
10 Inc., Gannett Company, Inc.,
11 Hearst Corporation, Magazine
12 Publishers of America, Inc.,
13 National Newspaper Association,
14 Reports Committee for Freedom of
15 the Press, Reuters America LLC,
16 The Association of Alternative
17 Newsweeklies, The Associated
18 Press, The National Conference
19 of Editorial Writers, and the
20 New York Times Co. (“Press
21 Amici”) in support of Plaintiff-
22 Appellee.
23
24 Cory L. Andrews, Daniel J.
25 Popeo, Washington Legal
26 Foundation, Washington, D.C.,
27 for Amici Curiae Washington
28 Legal Foundation and Allied
29 Educational Foundation in
30 support of Plaintiff-Appellee.
31
32 C. Dawn Causey, Gregory Taylor,
33 American Bankers Association,
34 Washington, D.C., for Amicus
35 Curie American Bankers
36 Association in support of
37 Defendant-Appellant and
38 Intervenor-Appellant.
39
40
41 DENNIS JACOBS, Chief Judge:

42 The Federal Reserve System--the central bank of the

3
1 United States--is composed of twelve regional Federal

2 Reserve Banks and the defendant-appellant Board of Governors

3 of the Federal Reserve System (“Board”), in Washington, D.C.

4 The Board is a federal agency that (among other things)

5 supervises the operations of the twelve Federal Reserve

6 Banks.

7 Plaintiff Bloomberg, L.P., a news organization,

8 submitted Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests to

9 the Board in April and May 2008. The requests sought (in

10 relevant part) detail about loans that the twelve Federal

11 Reserve Banks made to private banks in April and May 2008 at

12 the Discount Window and pursuant to ad hoc emergency lending

13 programs (described in the margin 1 ). Bloomberg asked, loan

1
Bloomberg sought information about loans conducted at
the Discount Window, the Primary Dealer Credit Facility
(“PDCF”), the Term Securities Lending Facility (“TSLF”), and
the Term Auction Facility (“TAF”). The Discount Window is
the long-standing program through which the twelve Federal
Reserve Banks make short-term loans (often overnight) to
depository institutions, and it can serve as “an emergency,
back-up source of liquidity” for borrowing depository
institutions that lack other options. Decl. of Brian F.
Madigan ¶ 18. In the financial crisis of 2007, the Board
authorized the Federal Reserve Banks to implement the TAF, a
form of Discount Window lending that provides longer-term
loans to depository institutions in amounts and at rates set
by auction. In response to the continuing financial crisis,
in 2008 the Board authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York to lend to primary dealers (certain banks and broker
dealers) through the PDCF and TSLF. The PDCF expands
Discount Window-style lending to primary dealers. The TSLF
4
1 by loan, for the name of the borrowing bank, the amount of

2 the loan, the origination and maturity dates, and the

3 collateral given.

4 The Board denied these requests (in relevant part) in

5 December 2008. The Board conceded possession of records

6 showing the loan information Bloomberg sought, with the

7 exception of the collateral; collateral information is held

8 by the lending Federal Reserve Banks. But the Board advised

9 that the responsive information in its possession--contained

10 in “Remaining Term Reports”--was exempt from disclosure

11 under FOIA Exemptions 4 and 5. The Board did not search the

12 lending records of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks,

13 explaining that a request to the Board does not constitute a

14 request for information held by those institutions.

15 Bloomberg brought this action in November 2008 (before

16 receiving the formal denial of both its requests) in the

17 United States District Court for the Southern District of

18 New York (Preska, Ch.J.) to compel disclosure of the

19 responsive documents and to compel the Board to conduct a

20 search of the records held at the Federal Reserve Bank of

permits primary dealers to obtain Treasury Securities in
exchange for a pledge of other types of securities; this is
implemented through an auction administered by the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York.
5
1 New York (which had granted many of the largest loans in the

2 relevant period). Following cross-motions for summary

3 judgment, the district court ruled that the Remaining Term

4 Reports were not exempt from FOIA disclosure under FOIA

5 Exemption 4 or 5, and that certain Federal Reserve Bank

6 records must be searched to respond adequately to the FOIA

7 request. See Bloomberg L.P. v. Bd. of Governors of the Fed.

8 Reserve Sys., 649 F. Supp. 2d 262 (S.D.N.Y. 2009). After

9 judgment was entered, the Clearing House Association (a

10 group of banks) was granted leave to intervene as a

11 defendant. The judgment was stayed pending this appeal. As

12 the records of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York had not

13 been searched, we need not decide here whether what may be

14 found must be produced.

15 The Board and the Clearing House appeal only on the

16 ground that a proper interpretation of FOIA Exemption 4

17 covers the requested material. No contest is made as to

18 Exemption 5, or as to the scope of the Board’s (disputed)

19 obligation to conduct a search of records at the Federal

20 Reserve Bank of New York. Any argument that the Board had

21 as to Exemption 5, or either side had as to the scope of the

22 ordered search at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is

6
1 therefore deemed waived. Norton v. Sam’s Club, 145 F.3d

2 114, 117 (2d Cir. 1998). Whether certain records of the

3 twelve Federal Reserve Banks are records of the Board is an

4 issue that is decided in an opinion--filed simultaneously

5 with this opinion--in the appeal (heard in tandem with this

6 appeal) from the Southern District’s decision in Fox News

7 Network, LLC v. Board of Governors of the Fed. Reserve Sys.,

8 639 F. Supp. 2d 384 (S.D.N.Y. 2009). See Fox News Network,

9 LLC v. Bd. of Governors of the Fed. Reserve Sys, ____ F.3d

10 ____, No. 09-3795 (2d Cir. March 19, 2010).

11 The only question decided in this opinion is whether

12 the Board may withhold the responsive Remaining Term Reports

13 under Exemption 4, which allows a federal agency (in this

14 case, the Board) to refuse disclosure of “trade secrets and

15 commercial or financial information obtained from a person

16 and privileged or confidential.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4).

17 “Exemption Four applies if a tripartite test is satisfied:

18 (1) The information for which exemption is sought must be a

19 trade secret or commercial or financial in character; (2) it

20 must be obtained from a person; and (3) it must be

21 privileged or confidential.” Nadler v. FDIC, 92 F.3d 93, 95

22 (2d Cir. 1996) (emphasis added) (internal citations,

7
1 alterations, and quotation marks omitted). Bloomberg

2 concedes that the information is financial in character:

3 That is why it wants it. The parties dispute whether the

4 second and third parts are satisfied.

5 We hold that the information at issue--the identity of

6 the borrowing bank, the dollar amount of the loans, the loan

7 origination and maturity dates, and the collateral securing

8 the loan --was not “obtained from” the borrowing banks within

9 the meaning of FOIA Exemption 4. We therefore do not reach

10 the question whether such information is “privileged or

11 confidential” as to the borrowing banks.

12 The Board’s alternative argument is that the Board

13 obtained information from the Federal Reserve Banks, and

14 that the Federal Reserve Banks are “persons.” Putting aside

15 a fair question as to whether the Federal Reserve Banks are

16 “persons” or agencies, we conclude that disclosure of the

17 contested records would not cause the Federal Reserve Banks

18 to suffer the kind of harm contemplated by the “privileged

19 or confidential” requirement of Exemption 4.

20

21 I

22 The “basic purpose [of FOIA] reflected a general

8
1 philosophy of full agency disclosure unless information is

2 exempted under clearly delineated statutory language.”

3 Dep’t of the Air Force v. Rose, 425 U.S. 352, 360-361 (1976)

4 (internal quotation marks omitted).

5 To implement this presumption for disclosure, FOIA

6 exemptions “have been consistently given a narrow compass.”

7 U.S. Dep’t of Justice v. Tax Analysts, 492 U.S. 136, 151

8 (1989); see also Inner City Press/Cmty. on the Move v. Bd.

9 of Governors of the Fed. Reserve Sys., 463 F.3d 239, 244 (2d

10 Cir. 2006). “[A]ll doubts [are] resolved in favor of

11 disclosure.” Local 3, Int’l Bhd. of Elec. Workers v. NLRB,

12 845 F.2d 1177, 1180 (2d Cir. 1988). And “the burden [is] on

13 the agency to justify the withholding of any requested

14 documents.” U.S. Dep’t of State v. Ray, 502 U.S. 164, 173

15 (1991). The agency’s decision that the information is

16 exempt from disclosure receives no deference; accordingly,

17 the district court decides de novo whether the agency has

18 sustained its burden. 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B) ; U.S. Dep’t

19 of Justice v. Reporters Comm. for Freedom of the Press, 489

20 U.S. 749, 755 (1989). Appellate review is likewise de novo.

21 Halpern v. FBI, 181 F.3d 279, 288 (2d Cir. 1999).

22 The Board advances two distinct arguments to support

9
1 the proposition that the disputed information was “obtained

2 from a person” under Exemption 4: (1) the loan information

3 contained in the Remaining Term Reports was “obtained” from

4 the borrowing banks because the amount, terms, and

5 conditions of each loan to each borrower was in effect

6 determined by the loan request itself; and (2) the Federal

7 Reserve Banks that made the loans and passed the information

8 on to the Board are “person[s]” from which the Board

9 “obtained” the information.

10

11 II

12 Was the information in the Remaining Term Reports

13 “obtained from a person?” FOIA defines a “person” as

14 including “an individual, partnership, corporation,

15 association, or public or private organization other than an

16 agency.” 5 U.S.C. § 551(2). It is uncontested that the

17 borrowing banks are persons under this definition.

18 A completed loan application will ordinarily contain

19 considerable information, and when it is submitted to a

20 lender, the lender has “obtained” that information from the

21 applicant. But Bloomberg’s FOIA request does not seek loan

22 applications; it seeks documents that show what loans the

10
1 Federal Reserve Banks actually made. True, disclosure of

2 loan terms allows one to back into information about the

3 borrower; inferences may be drawn that the bank that got the

4 loan asked for it, that it got no more than it requested,

5 and that the other terms were acceptable to the borrower.

6 But the fact of the loan (and its terms) cannot be said to

7 be “obtained from” the borrower, however confident,

8 creditworthy, and presumptuous the borrower may be. The

9 fact that information about an individual can sometimes be

10 inferred from information generated within an agency does

11 not mean that such information was obtained from that person

12 within the meaning of FOIA. Cf. Rose, 425 U.S. at 360-61

13 (FOIA exemptions are to be “narrowly construed”).

14 The information requested by Bloomberg was generated

15 within a Federal Reserve Bank upon its decision to grant a

16 loan. Like the loan itself, it did not come into existence

17 until a Federal Reserve Bank made the decision to approve

18 the loan request. “[Courts] have read the requirement that

19 information be ‘obtained from a person’ to restrict the

20 exemption’s application to data which have not been

21 generated within the Government.” Board of Trade v.

22 Commodity Futures Trading Comm’n, 627 F.2d 392, 403-04 (D.C.

11
1 Cir. 1980)); see also Judicial Watch, Inc. v. FDA, 449 F.3d

2 141, 148 (D.C. Cir. 2006) (“Unlike many other types of

3 information subject to an agency’s control, materials

4 implicating Exemption 4 are generally not developed within

5 the agency.”). In an analogous case in this Circuit,

6 involving a FOIA request to the Small Business

7 Administration, Judge Curtin concluded that the agency’s

8 loan information was “generated by the [Small Business

9 Administration] in the course of its involvement with its

10 borrowers.” Buffalo Evening News, Inc. v. Small Business

11 Admin., 666 F. Supp. 467, 469 (W.D.N.Y. 1987).

12 Some courts have extended the protection of Exemption 4

13 to information beyond the raw data gathered from persons by

14 the government. See, e.g., OSHA Data/CIH, Inc. v. U.S.

15 Dep’t of Labor, 220 F.3d 153, 162 n.23 (3d Cir. 2000)

16 (holding that disclosure of a ratio derived by an agency

17 from the numbers supplied by a person would disclose

18 commercial information obtained from a person and would thus

19 come within Exemption 4 if the information was

20 confidential); (Gulf & W. Indus., Inc. v. United States, 615

21 F.2d 527, 530 (D.C. Cir. 1979) (holding that disclosure of a

22 government report containing figures from which information

12
1 obtained from a company could be extrapolated would disclose

2 information obtained from a person and came within Exemption

3 4). But these cases do not bear upon the present case,

4 where what is requested is not merely the information

5 collected and slightly reprocessed by the government, but

6 disclosure of the agency’s own executive actions. We

7 conclude that they do not provide a reason to extend

8 Exemption 4 to cover the information requested in this case.

9 The Board’s chief argument is that, with respect to the

10 Discount Window and the other programs at issue, the Federal

11 Reserve Banks have no discretion in choosing whether to

12 grant the requested loans--so that in effect, it is the

13 borrowing bank that supplies to the Federal Reserve Bank the

14 particulars of the loan that the Federal Reserve Bank will

15 make as a matter of course. According to the Board, the

16 Federal Reserve Banks did nothing but translate the loan

17 requests (information “obtained from” the borrowing banks)

18 into loan approvals for payout by compliant tellers. In

19 other words, it argues, the information was “generated” by

20 the borrowers, not the Federal Reserve Banks.

21 The Board’s argument relies on the requested loans

22 being granted automatically; only in that way would the

13
1 information Bloomberg seeks be the same as the information

2 supplied by the borrowing banks and arguably not “generated”

3 or “developed” by the Federal Reserve Banks. This premise

4 (even if it were decisive) is not supported by the record.

5 According to Dr. Brian Madigan, a Board economist who

6 submitted a declaration in this matter: Upon receipt of a

7 “typical [Discount Window] borrowing request,” the Federal

8 Reserve Banks would “review the request, verify collateral

9 and, if approved, enter the loan in the Reserve Bank’s loan

10 and accounting system.” Decl. of Brian F. Madigan ¶ 11

11 (emphasis added). Since approval is required for the loan,

12 it follows that withholding approval would prevent it. In

13 all the programs at issue, loans are made only upon the

14 presentation of collateral when the loan is sought. Id.

15 Moreover, as Dr. Madigan also explained, apparently

16 with regard to all lending programs, “the Federal Reserve

17 Banks lend only against acceptable collateral.” Id.

18 (emphasis added). The Board may publish in advance the

19 collateral coverage it will require, and some forms of

20 collateral are readily valued and presumptively acceptable;

21 but collateral is scrutinized, the decision as to adequacy

22 is made by the lender, and a loan is denied unless the

14
1 collateral is acceptable. The acceptability of collateral

2 may be readily anticipated by the borrower, and come as no

3 surprise to either party, but it is not information that the

4 borrower can be said to have generated or imparted to the

5 lender.

6 In any case, even if the loans were granted

7 automatically, they did not come into existence until the

8 Federal Reserve Bank took executive action by granting the

9 loan. The only information sought is a summary report of

10 actions that were taken by the government. And it cannot be

11 said that the government “obtained” information as to its

12 own acts and doings from external sources or persons.

13

14 III

15 In the alternative, the Board argues that the

16 information at issue was “obtained from” the Federal Reserve

17 Banks, and that the Federal Reserve Banks themselves are

18 “person[s]” under FOIA. However, even if the Federal

19 Reserve Banks were defined as persons under FOIA,2 the

2
This would require a finding that a Federal Reserve
Bank is not itself an agency: a “person” includes “an
individual, partnership, corporation, association, or public
or private organization other than an agency.” 5 U.S.C. §
551(2) (emphasis added). Because we reject the Board’s
argument on a different ground, we need not decide that
15
1 information passed from them to the Board would still be

2 subject to disclosure unless it is “privileged or

3 confidential” within the meaning of Exemption 4. See

4 Nadler, 92 F.3d at 95.

5 We have stated that one way in which “information is

6 confidential for the purposes of Exemption 4 [is] if its

7 disclosure would have the effect . . . of causing

8 substantial harm to the competitive position of the person

9 from whom the information was obtained.” Inner City

10 Press/Cmty. on the Move, 463 F.3d at 244. The Board does

11 not undertake to show that the Federal Reserve Banks are

12 subject to competition, or that the disclosure of the

13 requested information would cause competitive injury to the

14 Federal Reserve Banks. Cf. Nadler, 92 F.3d at 95

15 (information must be privileged or confidential to be

16 withheld under Exemption 4).

17 The only prejudice or harm claimed by the Board for

18 itself (and the only issue of prejudice or harm we consider)

19 is that disclosure would impair its mission--to furnish

20 critical infusions to distressed banks on a confidential

21 basis--and thereby prevent loss of confidence, bank runs,

question.
16
1 fluctuations of bank stock, and rippling harm to the banking

2 system. We are therefore asked to extend the reach of

3 Exemption 4 to encompass the so-called “program

4 effectiveness” test, adopted by the First and District of

5 Columbia Circuits , which allows agencies to withhold

6 information as confidential under Exemption 4 if they

7 believe that withholding it “serves a valuable purpose and

8 is useful for the effective execution of its statutory

9 responsibilities.” 9 to 5 Org. for Women Office Workers v.

10 Bd. of Governors of Fed. Reserve Sys., 721 F.2d 1, 11 (1st

11 Cir. 1983); see also Critical Mass Energy Project v. Nuclear

12 Regulatory Comm’n, 830 F.2d 278, 287 (D.C. Cir. 1987)

13 (adopting program effectiveness test), overruled on other

14 grounds by Critical Mass Energy Project v. Nuclear

15 Regulatory Comm’n, 975 F.2d 871, 879 (D.C. Cir. 1992) (in

16 banc).

17 The “program effectiveness” test, if applied as the

18 Board invokes it, would give impermissible deference to the

19 agency, and would be analogous to the “public interest”

20 standard rejected by the Supreme Court in the context of

21 Exemption Five. See Fed. Open Market Comm. of Fed. Reserve

22 Sys. v. Merrill, 443 U.S. 340, 354 (1979). In that case,

17
1 the agency’s “principal argument [was] that Exemption 5

2 confers general authority upon an agency to delay disclosure

3 of intra-agency memoranda that would undermine the

4 effectiveness of the agency’s policy if released

5 immediately.” Id. at 353 (emphasis added). The Supreme

6 Court rejected that argument in terms that are instructive:

7 [T]he [agency’s] argument proves too much. Such
8 an interpretation of Exemption 5 would appear to
9 allow an agency to withhold any memoranda . . .
10 whenever the agency concluded that disclosure
11 would not promote the “efficiency” of its
12 operations or otherwise would not be in the
13 “public interest.” This would leave little, if
14 anything, to FOIA’s requirement of prompt
15 disclosure, and would run counter to Congress’
16 repeated rejection of any interpretation of the
17 FOIA which would allow an agency to withhold
18 information on the basis of some vague “public
19 interest” standard.
20
21 Id. at 354 (emphasis added).
22
23 The “public interest” standard rejected in Merrill is

24 the functional equivalent of the “program effectiveness”

25 test, as the Board invokes it: the agency gets to withhold

26 whatever it deems harmful to disclose--and an agency’s

27 decision as to its own mission and effectiveness is the kind

28 of thing that ordinarily commands deferential review. The

29 Board and the Clearing House undertake to show that

30 disclosure would harm the banks that borrowed (by disclosing

18
1 their prior distress) and the banking system as a whole

2 (because banks under stress may hesitate to seek relief or

3 rescue), and that these harms will reduce the effectiveness

4 of measures critical to the banking system . The arguments

5 are plausible, and forcefully made. But a test that permits

6 an agency to deny disclosure because the agency thinks it

7 best to do so (or convinces a court to think so, by logic or

8 deference) would undermine “the basic policy that

9 disclosure, not secrecy, is the dominant objective of

10 [FOIA].” See Rose, 425 U.S. at 361.

11 The requirement of disclosure under FOIA and its proper

12 limits are matters of congressional policy. The statute as

13 written by Congress sets forth no basis for the exemption

14 the Board asks us to read into it. If the Board believes

15 such an exemption would better serve the national interest,

16 it should ask Congress to amend the statute.

17

18 * * *

19 For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district

20 court is affirmed.

19