The Supreme Court decided the information’s release could harm the healthcare clinic’s ability to compete for the $1 million dollar grant.
(TRNS) – The U.S. Supreme Court denied an anti-abortion group’s request for more information concerning a $1 million dollar grant given to Planned Parenthood and other similar organizations by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
HHS had previously released more than 2,500 pages of records regarding the grant, however the agency withheld certain information they labelled as “classified,” and placed under protection through an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The information specifically dealt with information relating to Planned Parenthood’s healthcare fees and collection policy.
“Exemption 4″ prevents information involving “trade secrets and commercial or financial information” from being released, but the group New Hampshire Right to Life questioned whether or not the exemption protected information deemed “confidential” commercial information.
The Supreme Court decided the information qualified as “confidential”, and that it’s release could harm the healthcare clinic’s ability to compete for the grant, because they also face competition from other hospitals and community health clinics.
Two of the conservative Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Antoin Scalia said in a written statement that they would have taken a look into the case, and in his dissent, Thomas argued the lower court’s ruling “perpetuates an unsupported interpretation of an important federal statute.”