Ball v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Laurence Ball, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University, submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve Board) in October 2012, seeking memoranda setting forth the grounds on which the Federal Reserve Board exercised its statutory authority under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act to authorize emergency loans to rescue Bear Stearns and AIG from financial collapse in 2008. Professor Ball also sought the listing and valuation of the specific assets pledged as collateral for each loan. The Federal Reserve Board denied Professor Ball’s request in its entirety. On March 31, 2015, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Federal Reserve Board, allowing it to withhold the disputed documents.