Abstract: . . .  embraced enforcement proceedings by other agencies [489 U.S. 749, 777] as well. See id., at 243 (STEVENS, J., concurring). In his partial dissent, Justice Powell endorsed the Court's "generic" approach to the issue, id., at 244; he agreed that "the congressional requirement of a specific showing of harm does not prevent determinations of likely harm with respect to prehearing release of particular categories of documents." Id., at 249. In his view, however, the exempt category should have been limited to statements of witnesses who were currently employed by the respondent. To be sure, the majority opinion in Robbins noted that the phrases "`a person,'" "`an unwarranted invasion,'" and "`a confidential source,'" in Exemptions 7(B), (C), and (D), respectively, seem to imply a need for an individualized showing in every case (whereas the plural "`enforcement proceedings'" in Exemption 7(A) implies a categorical determination). See id., at 223-224. But since only an Exemption 7(A) question was presented in Robbins, we conclude today, upon closer inspection of Exemption 7(C), that for an appropriate class of law enforcement records or information a categorical balance may be undertaken there as well. 22 [489 U.S. 749, 778] First: A separate discussion in Robbins applies properly to Exemption 7(C) as well as to Exemption 7(A). Respondent had argued that "because FOIA expressly . . .
. . .  to the "could reasonably be expected to constitute" standard represents a considered congressional effort "to ease considerably a Federal law enforcement agency's burden in invoking [Exemption 7]," id., at 31424, there is no indication that the shift was intended to eliminate de novo review in favor of agency deference in Exemption 7(C) cases. Rather, although district courts still operate under the general de novo review standard of 5 Page 17 U.S.C. 552(a) (4)(B), in determining the impact on personal privacy from disclosure of law enforcement records or information, the stricter standard of whether such disclosure "would" constitute an unwarranted invasion of such privacy gives way to the more flexible standard of whether such disclosure "could reasonably be expected to "constitute such an invasion. [ Footnote 10 ] "The duty to compile such records is set forth in 28 U.S.C. 534. That section provides that the Attorney General is to `acquire, collect, classify, and preserve identification, criminal identification, crime and other records' and that he is to `exchange these records with, and for the official use of, authorized officials of the Federal Government, the States, cities, and penal and other institutions.' Significantly, however, the section goes on to provide that `[t]he exchange of records authorized by [the section] is subject to cancellation if dissemination . . .
--3000,2,750,3166,64615