United States Department of State v. Michael D. Ray et al. (502 U.S. 164)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 16, 1991 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 502 U.S. 164 · 112 S. Ct. 541
- Decided
- December 16, 1991
- Term
- October Term 1991
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Privacy
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the Department of State produced 25 documents containing information about Haitian nationals who had attempted to immigrate illegally to the United States and were involuntarily returned to Haiti. Names of individual Haitians had been deleted from 17 of the documents. The question presented is whether these deletions were authorized by FOIA Exemption 6, which provides that FOIA disclosure requirements do not apply to “personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” 5 U. S. C. § 552(b)(6). I Haiti is a densely populated nation located about 500 nautical miles southeast of Florida on the western third of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola. Prior to 1981, its history of severe economic depression and dictatorial government motivated large numbers of its citizens to emigrate to Florida without obtaining the permission of either the Haitian Government or the Government of the United States. A small number of those undocumented aliens were eligible for asylum as political refugees, but almost all of them were subject to deportation if identified and apprehended. In response to this burgeoning “illegal migration by sea of large numbers of undocumented aliens” from Haiti and other…
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