Glomar Response

In United States law, the term Glomar response (aka Glomarization or Glomar denial) refers to a "neither confirm nor deny" response to Freedom of Information Act requests. There are two instances in which Glomarization has been used. The first is in a national security contexts, where to deny a request on national securities grounds would provide information that the documents or programs which the requester is seeking indeed exists. Glomarization is also used in the case of privacy, in which a response as to whether or not a person is or is not mentioned in law enforcement files may have a stigmatizing connotation.

Lower court precedent has thus far ruled the Glomar response to have potential merit, if the secretive nature of the material truly requires it, and only if the agency provides "as much information as possible" to justify its claim. Otherwise, the principles established in FOIA may trump claims to secrecy.