United States District Court Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York Gabriel W. Gorenstein has ordered the National Institutes of Health ("NIH") to release financial interests and relationship information contained on waiver determinations for Special Government Employees who serve on NIH advisory committees. NIH had argued that this information was protected pursuant to Exemption 6 of the FOIA, however the court ruled that the privacy interests of the individuals in this material was outweighed by the public interest in detecting undue influence on the function of government.
The Court did rule in NIH's favor on another group of documents that came from Office of Government Form 450 and are protected pursuant to Exemption 3 pursuant to 5 U.S.C. App'x 4 Section 107 and 5 C.F.R. Section 2634.901.
The opinion can be found Download SeifeOpinion.
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