Ancient Coin Collectors Guild V Us Department of State

Court of Appeals Decision in Ancient Coin Collectors Guild v us Department of State in 2011

United States views on international law (based on the document “Digest of U.S. Practice in International Law”): On April 15, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its decision in a case involving FOIA claims brought by the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild against the United States Department of State. Ancient Coin Collectors Guild v. U.S. Dept. of State, 641 F.3d 504 (D.C. Cir. 2011). The introduction to the court's opinion is set forth below, summarizing the claims and the court's conclusions. The court found that the United States had properly invoked FOIA exemptions for the most part, but remanded to the district court for consideration of claims as to one document withheld and as to the adequacy of the Department's overall search. On June 10, 2011, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a petition for panel rehearing in the case. After remand, the United States government renewed its motion for summary judgment.*

Developments

The Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (“CPIA”), 19 U.S.C.

§§ 2600-13, allows the President to enter into agreements to restrict importation of cultural artifacts pursuant to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. 823 U.N.T.S. 231 (1972).

The Cultural Property Advisory Committee (“CPAC”) is a federal advisory committee (within the meaning of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (“FACA”), Public Law 92-463, 5 U.S.C. App. 2). It advises the State Department's [Assistant Secretary] for Educational and Cultural Affairs on import restriction requests from foreign governments. 19 U.S.C. § 2605. CPAC has no final authority to approve or deny import restrictions. But when the Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs enters into a Memorandum of Understanding with a foreign country on import restrictions, it must file a report with Congress that indicates how and why the import restrictions differ from CPAC's recommendations. 19 U.S.C. § 2602(g)(2).

Details

This case concerns eight requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) by the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild, the International Association of Professional Numismatists, and the Professional Numismatists Guild, Inc. (collectively, the “Guilds”) seeking records from the State Department relating to import restrictions imposed on cultural artifacts from China, Italy, and Cyprus. In response, State released 70 documents in full and 39 documents in part and withheld 19 documents entirely under various FOIA exemptions. Supplemental Declaration of Margaret P. Grafeld, Joint Appendix (“J.A.”) 229. The Guilds filed suit challenging the withholding of certain of these documents pursuant to FOIA Exemptions 1, 3, and 5 (as well as certain other exemptions not contested in this appeal), and the adequacy of State's search in response to the FOIA requests. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(1), (3), (5). The district court granted summary judgment in favor of State on all claims. Ancient Coin Collectors Guild v. U.S. Dep't. of State, 673 F. Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 2009).

We find that State's invocation of Exemptions 1 and 5 was proper, as was part of its withholding under Exemption 3, but we reverse and remand the district court's dismissal of the Guilds' claims as to one document withheld under Exemption 3 and (in part) as to the adequacy of the search.

Court of Appeals Decision in Ancient Coin Collectors Guild v. U.S. Department of State

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Notes and References

1. * Editor's note: On May 25, 2012, the district court granted the U.S. government's renewed motion for summary judgment.