Former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus has won a round in his FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy, in which he’s seeking disclosure of documents about proposed nuclear waste shipments to Idaho. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, in a 29-page ruling last week, found that the DOE may be violating the Freedom of Information Act, and ordered the agency to produce the documents for an in-camera review by the court to determine whether they should be disclosed in full.

Andrus had requested the information out of concerns over possible waivers of the 1995 Batt Agreement limiting nuclear waste shipments to Idaho. The DOE released 41 documents, but heavily redacted 30 of them; Andrus filed an appeal, which the DOE denied, and then he went to federal court. Last October, DOE released another 38 documents, but again, 33 were heavily redacted, hiding their content. Eight more documents were released in April.

The court ruled that Andrus still must file administrative appeals on the later releases, but also agreed with Andrus that the agency didn’t show that the earlier, heavily redacted releases were in the “public interest.” “The Court will require the DOE to reevaluate the redacted information that was responsive to Andrus’s FOIA request, and determine whether any would relate to the public’s interest, rather than that of the agency itself,” Winmill wrote. “In the event DOE determines information is not in the public interest, it should articulate justifications in a highly detailed and specific manner, addressing the substance of the information, not merely the policy underlying exemption.”

You can read the court’s full decision here; the Idaho Mountain Express has a full report here.