(Politico) A federal appeals court has overturned a lower-court decision that allowed the Department of Justice to withhold emails related to former President Donald Trump’s 2017 travel ban that largely targeted Muslim-majority nations.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the Freedom of Information Act case could open the door to disclosure of more drafts of federal government policies and edicts.
Such drafts are often reflexively withheld by federal agencies, but the three-judge appeals court panel’s decision Friday said that agencies can’t withhold drafts solely because they’re drafts and that officials seeking to keep such records secret need to put forward an explanation of how disclosure would upset an agency’s internal deliberations.
