## Facts

- Consumers Union of the United States, Inc. and Public Citizen’s Health Research Group requested, under FOIA, CPSC records concerning accidents attributable to the operation of television sets.
- The CPSC was willing to release the requested data but did not do so because television manufacturers obtained injunctive relief in separate “reverse-FOIA” litigation.
- Consumers Union filed a FOIA action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to compel disclosure.
- In the parallel Delaware action, manufacturers first obtained a preliminary injunction, and later a permanent injunction, prohibiting the CPSC from disclosing the same accident data.
- After the permanent injunction issued, the Supreme Court remanded for the D.C. Circuit to determine whether Consumers Union’s FOIA action could continue given the Delaware judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether a permanent injunction entered in separate reverse-FOIA litigation barred or mooted Consumers Union’s FOIA action against the CPSC.
2. Whether FOIA could require or permit the CPSC to disclose the requested accident data despite a binding permanent injunction prohibiting disclosure.
3. How FOIA’s disclosure regime operates when “other law” (including court orders) independently restricts an agency’s authority to release requested records.

## Decision

- The D.C. Circuit held the FOIA action was not eliminated solely because the CPSC was subject to a permanent injunction in another federal court.
- The court also held that FOIA could not be used to compel disclosure that would violate the Delaware permanent injunction.
- Because the Delaware injunction bound the CPSC and could not be collaterally disregarded in the FOIA case, Consumers Union had no enforceable FOIA remedy to force release of the enjoined data.

## Legal Principles

- A separate federal injunction against disclosure does not, by itself, extinguish a requester’s FOIA controversy; justiciability may remain even if the agency expresses willingness to disclose absent the injunction.
- When requested material is within a FOIA exemption, the permissibility of any voluntary agency disclosure is governed by “other pertinent law,” including statutes, regulations, and binding judicial orders.
- FOIA does not authorize courts to order an agency to violate independent legal commands; the proper way to change a prohibitory injunction is through review or modification in the issuing court, not by compelling disobedience via FOIA.

## Conclusion

The court allowed the FOIA dispute to proceed as a live controversy but concluded that FOIA could not override a binding federal court injunction prohibiting release, leaving the requester without a means to compel disclosure of the enjoined television-accident data.


Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. v. Consumer Prod. Safety Comm’n, 590 F.2d 1209 (D.C. Cir. 1978)