Federal Judge Orders Release of Entire Shelton Snow Investigative Files

PHOENIX, Arizona (December 4, 2017) | A federal judge for the U.S. District Court for Arizona ruled today that the Federal Aviation Administration failed to comply with the Freedom of Information Act when it withheld and redacted records concerning its 2014 changes to the hiring process for federal air traffic controllers. The changes were heavily scrutinized by Congress and detailed in a Fox Business expose that aired in 2015.

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The records at the heart of the federal lawsuit were originally requested by Arizona State University student Jorge Rojas between August 2015 and February 2016 and sought information about Shelton Snow, a former top-ranking FAA official who was the target of an FAA internal investigation for allegedly releasing information to certain non-employee members of the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE). Snow was accused of assisting NBCFAE members cheat on an applicant screening evaluation called the “Biographical Questionnaire.” Successfully passing the evaluation virtually guaranteed those applicants’ hiring as federal air traffic controllers. When the FAA heavily redacted the investigative report, citing Snow’s privacy interests, Rojas filed a federal lawsuit.

In his ruling, Judge G. Murray Snow ruled “With few noted exceptions, the FAA failed to carry its burden to show that FOIA exempted disclosure of Mr. Rojas’ requested documents.” This ruling paves the way for the entire Shelton Snow investigative record to be made public, among several other records which are soon to be detailed.  Rojas v. Federal Aviation Administration, et al., Case No. 16-3067 (D. Ariz.) has been in progress since September 2016.

“The public has an interest in knowing information about hiring officials who unfairly support specific job applicants, especially for positions that maintain public safety.”