FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee to meet Mar. 20th

The FOIA Advisory Committee will next meet on March 20, 2019, from 10am to 1pm, per a Federal Register notice scheduled to be published on February 19, 2019. As always, the meeting will be live-streamed on the National Archives’ YouTube channel at https:// www.youtube.com/user/usnational archives. Meeting material will be posted online at https:// www.archives.gov/ogis/foia-advisorycommittee/2018-2020-term/meetings.

Court opinions dated Feb. 12, 2019

Mabie v. USMS (S.D. Ill.) -- determining that Marshal’s Service performed adequate search for records pertaining to surveillance system installed at federal courthouse and that agency properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 7(E) and 7(F).

Edelman v. SEC (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff’s motion for attorney’s fees even though plaintiff substantially prevailed in underlying litigation, because agency’s actions were reasonable and no other entitlement factors favored plaintiff.

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

Court opinion issued Feb. 8, 2019

Allen v. BOP (D.D.C.) -- determining that agency conducted reasonable search for plaintiff’s prison records and properly relied on Exemptions 7(C), 7(E) and 7(F), except for use of Exemption 7(F) to withhold Central Inmate Monitoring information.

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

Court opinion issued Feb. 7, 2019

Lynn v. NARA (D.D.C.) -- holding that agency rightfully withheld CIA-generated records pertaining to the Grombach Organization pursuant to Exemption 1 and 3.

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

Court opinions issued Feb. 6, 2019

Winn v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- determining that FBI properly construed scope of plaintiff’s three requests to be limited to records concerning plaintiff, and that agency performed adequate search and segregability review.

Curran v. USPS (E.D. Wis.) -- ruling that: (1) internet usage records of agency employees constituted agency records and were required to be released absent personally identifying information; (2) agency improperly relied on Exemption 6 to withhold “supervisor observation logs,” which generally describe what was occurring in agency computer lab and hallway; and (3) agency properly withheld records of investigation and discipline of low-level agency employee.

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

Court opinions issued Feb. 5, 2019

Blakeney v. FBI (D.D.C.) — finding that: (1) Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys conducted adequate search for records pertaining to plaintiff’s criminal case and properly relied on Exemptions 5, 6, and 7(C); and (2) plaintiff’s claim against FBI was barred because plaintiff failed to pay FBI’s FOIA processing fees.

Det. Watch Network v. ICE (S.D.N.Y) -- ruling that plaintiffs were eligible and entitled to attorney’s fees and costs incurred during appellate litigation over immigration detention contracts, and that government was responsible for paying those fees even though third-party intervenors litigated at appellate levels.

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

Court opinion issued Feb. 4, 2019

Story of Stuff Project v. U.S. Forest Serv. (D.D.C.) -- ruling that agency properly relied on Exemptions 4, 5, and 9 to withhold records pertaining to operations of Nestlé Waters in San Bernardino National Forest, but that names of company employees who submitted permit-related reports were not protected by Exemption 6. Of note, the court determined that records pertaining to the company’s “boreholes” constituted “wells” for purposes of Exemption 9.

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

Court opinion issued Jan. 31, 2019

Amadis v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- concluding that: (1) plaintiff, who was denied visa to U.S. due to drug arrest, was required but failed to appeal timely responses of DEA and FBI, notwithstanding that agencies offered to perform additional searches if plaintiff submitted more information; (2) DEA performed adequate search for records pertaining to its processing of one of plaintiff’s requests; (3) FBI properly invoked Exemption 7(E) to withhold FOIA processing records pertaining to agency’s Glomar response to plaintiff’s earlier request; (4) Office of Information Policy properly interpreted scope of plaintiff’s request and it properly relied on Exemptions 5 and 6 to withhold records concerning its processing of plaintiff’s appeals; (5) State Department conducted reasonable search for records pertaining to its processing of plaintiff’s earlier request.

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

Court opinions issued Jan. 30, 2019

Friends of the Earth v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng'rs (W.D. Wash.) -- ordering agency to release biological evaluation prepared by consultant to British Petroleum (BP) after determining that: (1) “consultant corollary” doctrine of Exemption 5 was inapplicable because: (a) documents were not agency records (presumably referring to inter- and intra-agency communications threshold); and (b) BP and its consultant were not acting on behalf of agency; (2) deliberative process privilege was inapplicable because documents were not pre-decisional; and (3) agency waived any privilege by sharing document with BP.

Linder v. Exec. Officer for U.S. Attorneys (D.D.C.) -- ruling that EOUSA properly withheld grand jury testimony pursuant to Exemption 3 in conjunction with Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

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

Court opinion issued Jan. 29, 2019

Spataro v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- concluding on renewed summary judgement motion that: (1) FBI conducted adequate search by virtue of recovering records concerning criminal investigation of plaintiff that had been damaged by Hurricane Sandy; (2) FBI performed proper segregability review of remediated records and justified its use of Exemption 3 and 7(D) to withhold other records.

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