*
Honorable A. Wallace Tashima, Senior Judge for the United StatesCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting by designation.
(1a)
APPENDIX A
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALSFOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
No. 08-4024 AT&T
I
NC
,
PETITIONER
v.
F
EDERAL
C
OMMUNICATIONS
C
OMMISSION
;U
NITED
S
TATES OF
A
MERICA
,
RESPONDENT
C
OMPTEL
,
I
NTERVENOR
[Filed: Sept. 22, 2009]On Petition for Review of an Order of theFederal Communications Commission
OPINION OF THE COURT
Before: F
UENTES
,
C
HAGARES
, and T
ASHIMA
*
, CircuitJudges.C
HAGARES
, Circuit Judge.The Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C.§§ 551-59 [
sic
], requires a federal agency to disclose cer-
582 F.3d 4903rd Cir Opinion provided as Appendix Aof Petition for Writ of Cert at U.S. Supreme Court
2atain documents within its possession. But FOIA ex-empts from mandatory disclosure “records or informa-tion compiled for law enforcement purposes . . . to theextent that the production of such law enforcement re-cords or information . . . could reasonably be expectedto constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal pri- vacy,” § 552(b)(7)(C) (“Exemption 7(C)”), and defines“person” to “include an individual, partnership, corpora-tion, association, or public or private organization otherthan an agency,” § 551(2). Human beings have such“personal privacy.” This case requires us to determine whether corporations do, as well. AT&T, Inc. (“AT&T”) argued that the Federal Com-munications Commission (“FCC”) could not lawfullyrelease documents obtained during the course of an in- vestigation into an alleged overcharging on the groundthat disclosure would likely invade the company’s “per-sonal privacy.” The FCC rejected AT&T’s argumentand held that a corporation, as a matter of law, has no“personal privacy” in the first place. AT&T filed a peti-tion for review. We will grant the petition and remandto the FCC for further proceedings.I. AT&T participated in a federal program adminis-tered by the FCC, called “E-Rate,” that was designed toincrease schools’ access to advanced telecommunicationstechnology. As part of the program, AT&T providedequipment and services to elementary and secondaryschools, and then billed the Government for the cost of the equipment and services. In August 2004, AT&T dis-covered that it might have overcharged the Governmentfor certain work done for the New London, Connecticut
3aschool district. AT&T voluntarily reported the matterto the FCC, and the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau (“Bu-reau”) conducted an investigation. The two sides ulti-mately resolved the matter via a consent decree.During the course of the investigation, the Bureauordered AT&T to produce, and the company did indeedproduce, a range of documents related to its work withthe New London schools. Those documents includedinvoices, internal e-mails providing pricing and billinginformation for the work done in New London, re-sponses to Bureau interrogatories, names of employeesinvolved in the allegedly improper billing, and AT&T’sown assessment of whether and to what extent the em-ployees involved in the overcharging violated its internalcode of conduct.On April 4, 2005, CompTel, a trade association repre-senting some of AT&T’s competitors, submitted a FOIA request for “[a]ll pleadings and correspondence con-tained in” the Bureau’s AT&T E-Rate investigation file. Appendix (“App.”) 27. AT&T submitted a letter to theBureau opposing CompTel’s request, arguing that theFCC collected the documents that AT&T produced forlaw enforcement purposes and therefore that the FCCregulations implementing FOIA’s exemptions prohibiteddisclosure. CompTel submitted a reply letter.On August 5, 2005, the Bureau issued a letter-rulingrejecting AT&T’s argument that Exemption 7(C) andthe FCC’s regulations implementing that exemptionprohibit disclosure. That exemption, the Bureau held,does not apply to corporations because corporations lack“personal privacy.” AT&T filed an application request-ing the FCC to review the Bureau’s ruling. On Septem-
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