South Dakota newspaper prevails in FOIA lawsuit to obtain food stamp data

A federal district judge ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture must allow a South Dakota newspaper access to records of annual food stamp revenues for stores participating in the program nationwide. The judge rejected the department’s contention that disclosure would hurt grocery stores’ ability to compete writing that the contention was speculative and should not prevail over the interests in transparency. (The Daily Progress, November 30, 2016, by James Nord of the Associated Press)

The Sioux Falls The Argue Leader sued the department in 2011 to obtain the information, the department claiming exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act that reads that information compromising competition does not have to be released. The judge rejected the department’s reliance on exemption 4 arguing that food stamp sales are only a small part of revenues, and food stamp data does not disclose profit margin, net income or net worth. (Courthouse News Service, November 30, 2016, by Lacey Louwagie)