Laura Lundquist reports:
Idaho ranchers expressed disappointment with Monday’s U.S. District Court ruling requiring the Bureau of Land Management to release the names and addresses of grazing permit holders.
“We see this as an invasion of privacy,” said Wyatt Prescott, executive vice president of the Idaho Cattlemen’s Association.
The Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians sued for the information under the Freedom of Information Act, and the judge ruled that the public’s need to know about public land use outweighed any privacy concerns.
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Stephen Miller of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has more on this case and the privacy concerns:
The bureau was primarily concerned with the privacy of family-owned or closely-held ranching businesses. It claimed that the disclosure of individuals’ addresses, paired with already public information regarding the size of herds, could result in inferences being made regarding the individual’s personal finances.