Columbus, OH – On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief in Gun Owners of America v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), calling on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to uphold the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and reverse the lower court’s ill-advised ruling restricting the use of public documents, something the FOIA law does not allow.

“In the lower court’s ruling, the court has given itself a new power to create a new governmental right under the Freedom of Information Act that does not exist and that Congress did not authorize,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “The Buckeye Institute urges the appeals court to reverse the lower court’s misguided ruling and uphold the Freedom of Information Act.”

In its brief, The Buckeye Institute argued that the Freedom of Information Act does not grant courts the authority to restrict the use of public documents disclosed under FOIA, and courts do not have the power to simply expand their authority as they see fit. In this case, the ATF claimed that it inadvertently disclosed information and asked the court to restrict the use of those records, even though FOIA does not allow for any restrictions on the use of those records, and the Supreme Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence protects the use of public records regardless of whether they were inadvertently released or not. Despite this, the district court exceeded its authority when it restricted Gun Owners of America’s use of those public records.

# # #