Do Corporations Have Personal Privacy Rights? Supreme Court Set to Decide
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether corporations are shielded from disclosures under an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act that protects “personal privacy.”
The case involves AT&T’s quest to keep secret information gathered in a government investigation, the Associated Press and Bloomberg report. The Federal Communications Commission had cited the personal privacy exemption when it refused to release some of the AT&T information, sought in an open records request.
SCOTUSblog notes that the case follows the controversial Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which treated corporations as persons with free speech rights to spend money in federal election campaigns.
The new case is Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T Inc. Justice Elena Kagan won’t participate; she signed a brief as solicitor general urging the court to rule against a personal privacy exemption for corporations.
