[3] In 2004, AT&T and FCC agreed to produce an “E-Rate” program that assists schools and libraries across the US to obtain affordable telecommunications and Internet access.

AT&T, however, argued that FCC has no right to do so, referring to the Freedom of Information Act §552(b)(7)(C) which exempts records if their disclosure might lead to “an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy”.

In the 1886 case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394, the Supreme Court decided that corporations could be regarded as persons for the purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In this controversial case, the Supreme Court's 5–4 decision favored Citizen United, granting corporations, profit and non-profit, and unions the right to financially support political campaigns.

[9][10] Based on these precedent cases, AT&T sued to halt the disclosure of the investigation details in order to protect the corporation's "personal privacy".

The Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to make records and documents publicly available upon request (subject to several statutory exemptions).

[1] In the Court's opinion, Chief Justice Roberts discussed several examples of how adjective and noun forms of the same word stem could have completely different meanings.

The noun "crab" refers variously to a crustacean and a type of apple, while the related adjective "crabbed" can refer to handwriting that is “difficult to read,” Webster's Third New International Dictionary 527 (2002); "corny" can mean "using familiar and stereotyped formulas believed to appeal to the unsophisticated," which has little to do with "corn" ("the seeds of any of the cereal grasses used for food"); and while "crank" is "a part of an axis bent at right angles," "cranky" can mean "given to fretful fussiness.

The protection in FOIA against disclosure of law enforcement information on the ground that it would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy does not extend to corporations.