ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the background of the 1996 changes and predicts some of its consequences for agencies, requesters, and the general public. Government interpretations of the core purpose test recognized the value of the "not for public purposes" defense available to agencies that opted to protect the secrecy of files. The Justice Department has liberally construed the Supreme Court's interpretation of the core purpose test and, not surprisingly, has often asserted the absence of congruence between requesters' needs and numerous circuit and district court interpretations of the Freedom of Information Act's (FOIA) core purpose. The FOIA exemption for identifiable individual privacy interests requires a court to balance the individual privacy rights of the person named in the file against the public's interest in disclosure. This chapter concludes that private person access to other persons' information may have become a new entitlement for the Information Age.
