DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE v. FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY

Legal Principle at Issue

Whether the Privacy Act of 1974, which regulates how federal agencies collect, use, and share personal information, prohibits the government from disclosing the home addresses of bargaining-unit employees to labor unions without consent.

Action

Reversed. Petitioning party received a favorable disposition.

Facts/Syllabus

Two local unions filed unfair labor practice charges with the Federal Labor Relations Authority after the Department of Defense refused to provide them with the home addresses of agency employees in the bargaining units represented by the unions. The FLRA concluded that the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (Labor Statute) required the agencies to divulge the addresses and rejected the government's argument that such disclosure was prohibited by the Privacy Act of 1974. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted enforcement of the FLRA's disclosure orders and agreed that the Privacy Act did not bar disclosure because disclosure would be required under the Freedom of Information Act. In determining that FOIA Exemption which exempts from disclosure personnel files — "the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" did not apply — the court balanced the public interest in effective collective bargaining embodied in the Labor Statute against the employees' interest in keeping their home addresses private. The Fifth Circuit thereby rejected the view that, under Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of Press (1989), the only public interest to be weighed in the analysis is the extent to which FOIA's central purpose of opening agency action to public scrutiny would be served by disclosure.