Court opinions issued Sept. 14, 2018

Mabie v. U.S. Marshal's Serv. (S.D. Ill.) -- ruling that city jail and city police department were not agencies subject to federal Freedom of Information Act.

Property of the People v. OMB (D.D.C.) -- holding that: (1) OMB improperly relied on deliberative process privilege to withhold factual information from OMB Director’s calendar, such as names of schedulers, names of meeting attendees, and the locations of meetings; and (2) OMB’s filings were too vague to permit court to evaluate whether disputed calendar entries were protected from disclosure solely pursuant to presidential communications privilege or in conjunction with deliberative process privilege.

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

Court opinions issued Sept. 13, 2018

Niskanen Ctr. v. U.S. Dep't of Energy (D.D.C.) -- concluding that: (1) agency failed to perform reasonable search for records concerning federal advisory committee, namely National Coal Coalition or its incorporated counterpart NCC, Inc.; and (2) agency improperly withhold certain records pursuant to Exemption 4, because they were obtained involuntarily (contrary to agency’s claim) and agency failed to show that disclosure would likely cause substantial competitive harm; and (3) further briefing was required to determine whether on document was privileged under Exemption 4.

Cause of Action Inst. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- deciding after in camera review that: (1) DOJ improperly relied on attorney-client and deliberative process privileges to withhold portion of email between White House and Office of Information and Privacy concerning House Committee’s directive to agencies to withhold congressional records; (2) DOJ properly relied on same privileges to withhold communications among three DOJ components and undisclosed federal agency about same subject; and (3) it was unnecessary to resolve parties’ disagreement as to whether FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 raised requirement for withholding records.

Prechdel v. FCC -- finding that: (1) agency properly relied on deliberative process privilege to withhold communications among agency staff regarding public inquiry about proposed “Restoring Internet Freedom” regulations; (2) agency improperly invoked Exemption 6 to withhold email addresses of email associated with “bulk comment” submissions; (3) .CSV files themselves also could not be protected by Exemption 6, and ordering parties to meet and confer about their availability; and (4) agency properly invoked Exemption 7(E) to withhold electronic server logs detailing all dates and times that .CSV files were submitted.

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 12, 2018

Hillier v. CIA (D.D.C.) — ruling that: (1) CIA performed adequate search for unclassified records concerning plaintiff, who believes he is under surveillance, and that agency properly refused to confirm or deny existence of classified records pursuant to Exemptions 1 and 3; (2) DHS performed adequate search for records about plaintiff, who claimed he might have been mistaken for suspected terrorist, except with respect to one system of records; and (3) Department of State performed reasonable search for records concerning plaintiff’s alleged involvement in terrorist incidents.

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 10, 2018

Am. Ctr. for Law & Justice v. U.S. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) agency properly relied on deliberative process privilege to withhold portions of 14 of 16 emails pertaining to video of 2013 briefing about Iran that agency altered; (2) agency properly redacted two documents pursuant to attorney-client privilege; and (3) agency did not justify withholding one email pursuant to presidential communications privilege.

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

Court opinions issued Sept. 6-7, 2018

Sept. 7, 2018

James Madison Proj. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- concluding that government properly invoked Exemption 7(A) in refusing to confirm or deny existence of records indicating whether President Trump is or was ever target of or material witness to any investigation, and that public statements by President Trump and DOJ did not invalidate government's Glomar response. 

King & Spalding v. HHS (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) Executive Office for United States Attorneys did not perform adequate search for records pertaining to investigation of plaintiff's client (Abiomed, a medical device company), because agency's declaration did not identify terms used to search three of four email files; (2) EOUSA failed to demonstrate that material provided to government about Abiomed by unidentified individual or entity was protected by Exemption 7(D); and (3) EOUSA properly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) to withhold name of counsel who had transmitted material to government on behalf of unidentified individual or entity, but name of counsel's law firm was not protected from disclosure.

Am. Ctr. for Law & Justice v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) plaintiff waived its right to challenge adequacy of DOJ's search for records pertaining to June 2016 airplane meeting between then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Clinton, because plaintiff failed to raise search issue in joint status report; (2) DOJ properly relied on deliberative process privilege to redact ten of twelve documents consisting of discussions and talking points about how to handle press inquiries about airplane meeting.

Sept. 6, 2018

Montgomery v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) IRS properly invoked Exemption 7(D) in refusing to confirm or deny the existence of records pertaining to whistleblower involved in investigation of plaintiffs, despite agency's error in not raising Glomar response during administrative stage; (2) IRS did not perform reasonable search for other records pertaining to agency's investigation of plaintiffs. 

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 4, 2018

Frank LLP v. CFPB (D.D.C.) -- holding that CFPB properly relied on Exemption 7(E) to redact two investigational hearing transcripts generated in connection with enforcement action.  

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

Court opinion issued August 31, 2018

Ernest Asiedu Odei & Spirit of Grace Outreach. v. DHS (N.D. Ill.) -- determining that: (1) DHS performed reasonable search for records concerning denial of entry and detention of Ghanaian national, and (2) DHS "honored" disputed FOIA requests by releasing all documents with redactions and that plaintiffs did not object to Vaughn Index.   

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

Court opinion issued Aug. 29, 2018

San Juan Citizens All. v. Bureau of Land Mgmt. (D. Colo.) -- in a wieldy opinion, (1) denying parties' summary judgment motions regarding adequacy of government's search for records concerning Glade Run Recreation Area, noting that "each party has the burden of proof showing reasonableness and neither party has met that burden"; (2) finding that "there may be merit in proceeding" with plaintiff's claim that agency has pattern and practice of illegally withholding records from plaintiff; and (3) denying plaintiff's motion for contempt orders against agency officials for submitting declarations that plaintiff asserted were "ambiguous and unresponsive."

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

Court opinion issued Aug. 27, 2018

Crestek, Inc. & Subsidiaries  v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- determining that IRS performed reasonable search for companies tax records and properly withheld certain records pursuant to Exemptions 5 (deliberative process, attorney work-product, and attorney-client privileges), 7(D), and 7(E).  

Sandoval v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) plaintiff failed to exhaust administrative remedies with respect to requests to FBI and Federal Bureau of Prisons for records about his criminal case; (2) plaintiff was not entitled to additional records from Executive Office for United States Attorneys because he refused to pay for copies.  

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

Court opinions issued Aug. 24, 2018

Gatore v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- concluding that: (1) agency improperly relied upon deliberative process privilege to withhold asylum officer assessments in full; (2) plaintiff had standing to bring "policy-and-practice" claims pertaining to agency's treatment of assessments under FOIA and that defendant was not entitled to summary judgment on merits of claims; and (3) individual plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that they were entitled to represent a class of plaintiffs under Rule 23(a).  

Turner v. U.S. Forest Serv. (S.D. Ill.) -- determining that agency conducted adequate search for records pertaining to protection of bats in Shawnee National Forest.  

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