Q. Does ACLU v. DOD (S.D.N.Y. 2005) hold that Glomar responses can be outweighed by public interest? The Wikipedia page on the case says that, but I reviewed the Glomar section of the opinion and didn’t see it.

A. I agree with you that the court did not consider public interest in deciding the propriety of the agency’s Glomar claims, which were issued pursuant to Exemptions 1 and 3. The last sentence/paragraph of the Wikipedia entry is awkwardly written, but it does not appear to me to say differently. The court did consider public interest in deciding whether to release detainee photographs that the agency acknowledged existed and withheld under Exemptions 6, 7(C), and 7(F). On those claims, the court agreed that the ACLU had the better of the argument.