6 canonical passages across 5 cases, quoted by 326 opinions in total. These passages cluster together because the same opinions keep quoting them side by side — they state parts of one doctrine. The anchor passage is from Department of the Air Force v. Rose.
| # | Case | Flag | Canonical passage | Citers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Department of the Air Force v. Rose Anchor | green | “disclosure, not secrecy, is the dominant objective of the act.” | 80 |
| 2 | American Civil Liberties Union v. United States Department of Defense | green | “if an agency's affidavit describes the justifications for withholding the information with specific detail, demonstrates that the information withheld logically falls within the claimed exemption, and is not contradicted by contrary evidence in the record or by evidence of the a…” | 75 |
| 3 | Ancient Coin Collectors Guild v. United States Department of State | green | “uncontradicted, plausible affidavits showing reasonable specificity and a logical relation to the exemption are likely to prevail.” | 53 |
| 4 | Milner v. Department of the Navy | green | “exemptions are explicitly made exclusive, and must be narrowly construed.” | 50 |
| 5 | Multi Ag Media LLC v. Department of Agriculture | green | “an agency may sustain its burden by means of affidavits, but only if they contain reasonable specificity of detail rather than merely conclusory statements, and if they are not called into question by contradictory evidence in the record or by evidence of agency bad faith.” | 34 |
| 6 | Milner v. Department of the Navy | green | “these exemptions are explicitly made exclusive, and must be narrowly construed.” | 34 |
A red or yellow flag on a member means the underlying case has negative treatment — for those, check the case page before relying on the passage.