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September 2023

Inadvertent Disclosure of FOIA-Exempt Material Cannot Justify Prior Restraint

By Matthew Thornton, Matthew Cate, and Chuck Tobin
The court—which months earlier had ruled that the record fell within the FOIA’s privacy exemption—held that the agency’s attempt to claw back the document and prohibit its dissemination would constitute a prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment.