Tag Archives: UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

NOAA Responds to Massachusetts legislators on cod, haddock, and yellowtail flounder: the answer is still no

Many legal observers, Members of Congress and elected officials disagree with that interpretation. Saving Seafood requested the legal opinion of the General Counsel under the Freedom of Information Act. The Department found 2logo9 pages of written material constituting the advice, but refused to release any of them under 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5), which exempts from disclosure inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters that would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency. Saving Seafood continues to ask the agency to explain their legal rationale in the face of such widespread disagreement from numerous legislators and lawyers with qualifications to comment. continued