Supreme Court Changes Rules on (b)(2)

On March 7, 2011, the Supreme Court, in an 8-1 majority opinion penned by new Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, ruled in Milner vs. Department of the Navy that the agency erred in applying the (b)(2) exemption to protect documents that show the hypothetical blast area of at an ammunition dump in Washington state.

The ruling is significant in that it is the first to limit the exemption's "personnel rules and practices" clause. The ruling indicated that the clause cannot be used in hypothetical situations such as the one featured in the Milner case. However, they did note that other exemptions may be used to protect similar information. This ruling underscored the need for accurate record-keeping with review decisions on documents, as court decisions can force unexpected changes to reviews. A robust redaction and document management software program like AccessPro Redaction can help agencies stay ahead of these situations by allowing analysts and reviewers to access past reviews at the click of a button.