By: Derek Hawkins//October 25, 2016//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Case No.: 16-1840
Officials: POSNER, FLAUM, and MANION, Circuit Judges
Focus: Withholding Information
Appellant fails to show that government error was willfully made in failing to provide information when requested
“We learn in the Center’s reply brief that its primary con‐ cern is not with names but with the Tier III category itself, for it says for example that “the designation of Tier III organ‐ izations is often doubtful.” It hopes that if it can obtain the names of all the organizations—its goal in this litigation—it will be able to discredit some or perhaps many of them. Deeply distrustful of the U.S. government, by the tone and content of its briefs the Center signals its disbelief that the government has secrets worth keeping from asylum seekers and their helpers (such as the Center), but it does not explain what the government would gain by pretending that harm‐ less organizations are actually terrorist groups. The govern‐ ment makes mistakes, but the Center has not shown that they’re willful, or that Exemption 7(E), on which this litiga‐ tion pivots, is either invalid—in fact the Center concedes that the exemption is valid—or inapplicable to the withheld names”
Affirmed