The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments early last month in the first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case (United States Department of Justice v. City of Chicago) to reach the Supreme Court in years. However, just days before the March 4 oral argument the Supreme Court cancelled the hearing, removed the case from its docket, and ordered the lower court's judgment vacated. This is the second time in recent years that a last minute development has removed a FOIA case from the Supreme Court's docket. In this case, previously discussion in this Watcher article, the City of Chicago had been attempting to obtain information such as names and addresses of gun purchasers from a database maintained by the Department of Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF). Interestingly, the Department of Treasury had blocked access focusing on the privacy interests of the information instead of the law enforcement or gun policy issues. The Treasury Department also maintained that their FOIA requirements only apply to records that provide direct information about the department's performance. The lower court, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled in favor of Chicago last year and ordered the disclosure of two investigative databases maintained by the ATF. The Department of Justice, which was substituted as the defendant agency in this case since the Homeland Security Act of 2002 transferred the ATF to the Department of Justice, was appealing that decision to the Supreme Court. Just days before the Supreme Court's decision to remand the case, the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution of 2003 was signed into law. The act contained a statute which specifically prohibits the ATF from using appropriated funds to comply with any FOIA request seeking records of the type that were at issue in the case. After the legislation was signed into law, both the Solicitor General and counsel for the FOIA requester filed briefs on the impacts of the new law. The Supreme Court rejected the requestors' argument to go forward on the case, and instead sent it back down to the lower courts. On remand, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit now is to consider the effect on this case of the recently enacted legislation.