Administrator, F.A.A. v. Robertson

In Administrator, F.A.A. v. Robertson, 422 U.S. 255, 95 S.Ct. 2140, 45 L.Ed.2d 164 (1975), the Supreme Court held that 1104 of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, 49 U.S.C. 1504, was an exempting statute within the meaning of Exemption Three. Section 1104 permits the FAA administrator to withhold aviation systems analyses when he determines that disclosure "would adversely affect" the report's subject and is not "in the interest of the public." The Supreme Court had suggested that, in promulgating FOIA, Congress's intent "was to permit the numerous laws then extant allowing confidentiality to stand(.)" Id. at 266, 95 S.Ct. at 2148. Consequently, the Court found a portion of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, 49 U.S.C. 1504, which permitted nondisclosure when "a disclosure of such information would adversely affect the interests of such person and is not required in the interest of the public," to be a statute qualifying under Exemption 3 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).