Court opinions issued July 26, 2018

Butler v. DOL (D.D.C.) -- finding that Occupational Safety and Health Administration properly withheld records of accident investigation records pursuant to Exemptions 4, 7(C), and 7(D), except for portion of service agreement that did not contain "pricing and cost data." 

Doyle v. DHS (S.D.N.Y.) -- holding that: (1) government properly withheld records of visitors to White House because they are not subject to FOIA, per D.C. Circuit case law; (2) government performed adequate search for records of presidential visitors at Mar-a-Lago; and (3) government properly withheld records concerning President's schedule because they are not subject to FOIA, but was required to process "operational records" pertaining to Japanese Prime Minister's visit to Mar-a-Lago. 

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinion issued July 25, 2018

Envtl. Integrity Project v. EPA (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff's motion for attorney's fees in case involving Scott Pruitt's travel vouchers and meetings with outside parties, because: (a) EPA exercised due diligence in processing request; (b) lawsuit was not catalyst for production; and (c) court order regarding proposed briefing schedule did not provide "relief" to plaintiff. 

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinion issued July 24, 2018

Fleming v. Medicare Freedom of Info. Grp. (D.D.C.) -- denying pro se inmate's motion for permission to file motion to proceed in forma pauperis, motion for appointment of counsel, motion for discovery, and motion for expedited proceedings, because court previously considered and rejected duplicate motions. 

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinions issued July 23, 2018

Kansas ex rel Schmidt v. DOD (D. Kan.) -- following in camera review of five documents pertaining to proposed closing of Guantanamo Bay detention center, concluding that: (1) agency improperly relied on deliberative process privilege to withhold information about actual costs of housing various prisoners; (2) agency properly invoked deliberative process privilege to withhold projected costs of moving Guantanamo Bay prisoners; and (3) agency properly withheld draft email pursuant to deliberative process privilege, but improperly relied on same privilege to withhold identity of another agency.

Villar v. FBI (D.N.H.) -- ruling that FBI properly invoked Exemptions 6, 7(C), 7(D), and 7(E) to withhold records, or portions thereof, concerning agency's investigation of plaintiff-inmate's criminal activity. 

Mora-Villalpando v. ICE (W.D. Wa.) -- denying government's motion to strike Complaint's allegations that ICE illegally targeted plaintiff and other immigration activists, because allegations would be relevant to "public interest" factors considered under Exemptions 6 and 7(C) and for attorney's fees.      

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinion issued July 19, 2018

Sikes v. U.S. Dep't of the Navy (11th Cir.) -- holding that: (1) district court erred in allowing Navy to ignore plaintiff's request for certain records concerning suicide of Admiral Boorda merely because agency had released records in response to plaintiff's duplicate request five years earlier; (2) although district court failed to address whether Navy properly withheld suicide note from Admiral Boorda to his wife pursuant to Exemption 7(C), there was no need to remand case because law was clear that note was properly protected from disclosure.  

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinions issued July 18, 2018

Wild Horse Freedom Fed'n v. U.S. Dep't of the Interior (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) Bureau of Land Management failed to perform adequate search for various records pertaining to Wild Horse and Burro Program; (2)  agency properly withheld certain (but not all) information from one exhibit pursuant to Exemption 5, and that redactions on second exhibit could not be reviewed until agency provided court with clean copy.

W. Values Project v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- holding that government improperly issued Glomar response based on Exemption 5 for request pertaining to Office of Legal Counsel opinions, and that it performed reasonable search for remaining requested records.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinions issued July 17, 2018

Judicial Watch v. DHS (D.C. Cir.) -- in a 2-1 decision, reversing district court's decision that plaintiff's complaint failed to adequately allege “policy or practice” claim against Secret Service based on history of delayed responses.  

Trautman v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- determining that National Archives & Records Administration failed to adequately describe search of three agency offices for records pertaining to investigation of former Archivist Archivist of the United States, Allen Weinstein.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinion issued July 12, 2018

Brown v. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) emails sent by State Department to Hillary Clinton's private attorney were not considered in public domain; and (2) State Department properly withheld records pursuant to deliberative process, attorney work-product, and attorney-client privileges.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinions issued July 10-11, 2018

July 11, 2018

Kuntz v. U.S Dep't of Justice (D. N.D.) -- in first published FOIA opinion from North Dakota district in more than 14 years, ruling that FBI's full disclosure of memorandum with North Dakota Attorney General rendered case moot. 

July 10, 2018

Ctr. for Investigative Reporting v. DOJ (N.D. Cal.) -- finding that: (1) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives failed to perform reasonable search for certain firearms tracing records; (2) ATF was not required to produce new documents to satisfy plaintiff's request; and (3) ATF properly withheld non-statistical aggregate data from trace database pursuant to Exemption 3.  

Elliott v. USDA (D. Md.) -- dismissing case after determining that government never received plaintiff-inmate's FOIA request concerning government's jurisdiction over certain property. 

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinions issued July 5, 2018

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. DOJ (2nd Cir.) -- vacating district court's ruling that government had acknowledged certain information pertaining to drone strikes, because ruling was "unnecessary" and posed "risk of injury to important security interests of the United States."  

Powell v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- finding that agency performed reasonable search for tax records, except for plaintiff's "K-1 information as it relates to Form 706 from the William A. Powell Estate."

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here.