What are the FOIA exemptions?
Records (or portions of records) will be disclosed unless that disclosure harms an interest protected by a FOIA exemption. The nine FOIA exemptions are cited in the Act as 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(1) through (b)(9): (b)(1)records currently and properly classified in the interest of national security; (b)(2)records related solely to internal personnel rules and practices, which if released would allow circumvention of an agency function; (b)(3)records protected by another law that specifically exempts the information from public release; (b)(4)trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a private source which would cause substantial competitive harm to the source if disclosed; (b)(5)internal records that are deliberative in nature and are part of the decision making process that contain opinions and recommendations; (b)(6)records which if released, would result in a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy; (b)(7)investigatory records or information compiled for l
