The Whassup Indians have a large reservation in rural Montana. As part of an agreement with the federal government, they provide a large volume of data about their water usage. H2O4U, an environmental group, wants to get access to the documents to see if the Whassups are being responsible stewards of resources. They request the documents through the Freedom of Information Act. The Department of the Interior claims they are exempt from the FoIA as inter-agency memoranda and refuses to turn them over. In a court battle, a court would rule that Interior must turn over the documents.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Interagency memoranda are exempt. The Department of Interior would have to turn over any final report but not necessarily all the preparation work that went into it.

The Whassup Indians Have a Large Reservation in Rural Montana