The Appellate Court determined that withholding the records from Alley was not improper under FOIA, if the injunction applies to the records Alley requested. The Court pointed out that other courts have rejected such very narrow interpretations of the scope of injunctions. The Court similarly rejects the interpretation here, and analyzes the fair meaning of the text of the injunction. The language of the Florida Medical injunction is fairly broad, stating a permanent injunction of disclosure of "any list" of annual Medicare reimbursement amounts, for "any years," if disclosing the amounts would identify members of the re-certified class.

Under that reading, the Appellate Court held that the Florida Medical injunction in the context of the GTE Sylvania standard means that HHS's refusal to disclose the requested records was not improper withholding under the FOIA. Even if the disclosure was indirect it still counts, as the public now has unknown data that can reveal in some manner the annual reimbursement total.


The Court added that a FOIA lawsuit may not be used to "collaterally" attack an injunction--meaning that one cannot attack the validity of the injunction through a case that is not a direct legal response to the injunction. Rather, a party must ask the court which handed down the injunction to modify or vacate the injunction and then appeal any refusal thereof.


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