EPIC Loses Fight To Get Document From DHS on Rules for Shutting Down Wireless Networks in Emergency
A push by the Electronic Privacy Information Center to get access to the Department of Homeland Security Standard Operating Procedure 303, a protocol for shutting down wireless networks during critical emergencies, hit a snag Tuesday at the U.S. Court of…
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Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. A lower court ordered DHS to hand over the document after EPIC sued and said disclosure is required by the Freedom of Information Act and DHS had been willing to surrender only a heavily redacted copy. The department appealed, citing FOIA exemption 7(F) and arguments that production of SOP 303 could reasonably be expected to endanger many individuals’ lives or physical safety. The appeals court agreed, in an opinion written by Judge Judith Rogers. The D.C. Circuit ordered the lower court to decide whether any reasonably segregable portions of SOP 303 can be disclosed. The court cited a declaration filed by James Holzer, a senior DHS FOIA officer. Holzer had argued that making SOP 303 public would ”enable bad actors to insert themselves into the process of shutting down or reactivating wireless networks by appropriating verification methods and then impersonating officials designated for involvement in the verification process,” the court said. The bad actors could then “freely use wireless networks to activate . . . improvised explosive devices,” the declaration said. The court agreed. “We hold that the Department permissibly withheld much, if not all of SOP 303, because its release, as described in the Holzer declaration, could reasonably be expected to endanger individuals’ lives or physical safety,” Rogers wrote.