Dow Jones Company Inc v. Department of Justice’s Empirical Analysis
917 F.2d 571 · 1990
Citation profile
22 federal appellate · 45 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 88 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2024 · most notably United States Department of Justice v. Landano (1993), Steinberg v. United States Department of Justice (1994)
22 federal appellate · 45 district · 2 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 5 U.S.C. § 551 (Administrative Procedure Act of 1946) · 5 U.S.C. § 552 (Freedom of Information Act)
Relies on Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine · Consumer Product Safety Commission v. GTE Sylvania, Inc. · National Labor Relations Board v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. · Department of the Air Force v. Rose · United States Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 88 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A]s long as the documents are created for the purpose of aiding the agency’s deliberative process, ... they will be deemed intra-agency documents even when created by non-agency personnel.... Exemption 5 permits an agency to protect the confidentiality of communications from outside the agency so long as those communications are part and parcel of the agency’s deliberative process. As such, they remain intra-agency documents. None of our cases have extended that notion, however, to the protection of deliberations of a non-agency either as an interpretation of “intra-agency” or “inter-agency.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"The law of this circuit is that in the absence of evidence to the contrary, promises of confidentiality are inherently implicit when the FBI solicits information." As long as the department can show "that the information was solicited during the course of law enforcement investigations, the FBI raises the presumption that assurances were given" in exchange for the information.... Since the FBI typically promises confidentiality and rarely-if ever-will a source not desire it, only the starkest and most conclusive evidence of nonconfidentiality will rebut the presumption.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency.” 5 U.S.C. § 552 (b)(5). This exemption includes documents traditionally afforded protection”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.