Court opinions issued June 12, 2019

AquAlliance v. Nat'l Oceanic & Atmosphereric Admin. (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff’s request for $41,000 in fees and costs because agency acted reasonably in processing “massive amount” of documents once the lawsuit was filed.

Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dep’t of State (D.D.C.) -- granting in part and denying in part agency’s use of attorney-client and deliberative process privileges to withhold records concerning agency’s use of personal email by or under Secretary Clinton.

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

Court opinions issued June 7, 2019

Cable News Network v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) agency properly relied on Exemption 3, in conjunction with the National Security Act of 1947, to redact information from James Comey’s memos concerning his meeting with President Trump; (2) agency properly relied on Exemption 1 with respect to 12 of 20 redactions from Comey’s memos.

Daily Caller News Found. v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- denying FBI’s request for an Open America stay because agency failed to show “exceptional circumstances” or that it made sufficient progress in reducing its backlog; denying plaintiff’s request for FBI to process 1200 pages per month instead of FBI’s usual rate of 500 pages per month.

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

Court opinion issued June 3, 2019

Humane Soc'y of U.S. v. Animal & Plant Health Inspection Serv. (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) agency improperly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) to withhold narrative portion of inspection reports, among other items, noting that privacy exemptions do not protect “details about a business’s compliance with regulations and statutes;” further noting that government failed to demonstrate that disclosure would likely invite harassment and stigma; and (2) agency properly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) to withhold licensee addresses and contact information from the inspection documents, as well third-parties’ names, images, and personally identifying information.

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

Court opinion issued May 31, 2019

Kopp v. U.S. Secret Serv. (N.D. Cal.) -- awarding $21,692.66 in attorney’s fees and costs in connection with request for records concerning Donald Trump, Jr.’s trip to India, rejecting government’s argument that two of plaintiff’s requests were overly broad and vague.

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

Court opinion issued May 30, 2019

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. NSA (2nd Cir.) -- affirming district court’s decision that six intelligence program documents were exempt from disclosure under Exemptions 1 and 3, and that a DOJ/Office of Legal Counsel memorandum was protected pursuant to Exemption 5. Notably, the Circuit rejected appellant’s arguments that the government’s Exemption 5 withholdings were undermined by the doctrines of “working law,” “express adoption,” or “incorporation by reference.”

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

Court opinion issued May 23, 2019

Satterlee v. Comm’r of IRS (W.D. Mo., 2019) -- concluding that: (1) plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies with respect to three of his four requests, which sought various records concerning tax liens; (2) plaintiff’s fourth request was improper because it sought the creation of a records or the answer to a question; (3) plaintiff was not entitled to expedited processing or to the litigation costs he incurred.

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

Court opinions issued May 22, 2019

Pub. Citizen. v. U.S. Dep't of Educ. (D.D.C.) -- concluding that agency properly relied on deliberative process and attorney-client privileges to withhold records pertaining to agency event, notably including the name of agency attorney from whom advice was sought.

Amadis v. DOJ (D.D.C. ) -- ruling that: (1) plaintiff failed to exhaust administrative remedies with respect to responses issued by DEA and FBI, notwithstanding those agencies’ offers to perform additional searches; (2) DEA performed adequate search for records pertaining to agency’s processing of plaintiff’s earlier FOIA request; (3) FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(E) to withhold search slips and case notes pertaining to its processing of plaintiff’s earlier FOIA request; (4) DOJ’s Office of Information Policy reasonably interpreted scope of plaintiff’s request and properly relied on Exemptions 5 and 6 to withhold information from its appeal “blitz” forms; (5) Department of State performed adequate search for records pertaining to its processing of plaintiff’s earlier FOIA request.

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

Court opinion issued May 17, 2019

Proctor v. NARA (N.D. Cal.) -- finding that: (1) agency properly relied on Exemption 3 in conjunction with Rule Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) to withhold plaintiff's 1998 deposition transcript regarding Monica Lewinsky, except as to the identities of the prosecutors, the court reporter, and plaintiff; and (2) court did not have inherent authority to release remaining deposition transcript; that authority belonged to the Eastern District of Virginia, under whose supervision the transcript was produced.

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

Court opinions issued May 16, 2019

Humane Soc'y v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv. (E.D. Va.) -- concluding that: (1) agency released copies of all requested African elephant and lion trophy permits, which mooted plaintiff’s claim; and (2) FOIA’s reading room provision did not obligate government to publish permitting records created in the future on a continuous basis.

Willis v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- finding that FBI performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff and that it properly withheld name of agency employee pursuant to Exemption 6.

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

Court opinions issued May 8 and May 10, 2019

May 10, 2019

Scott v. U.S. Attorney Offices (D. Md.) -- dismissing lawsuit after determining that plaintiff failed to appeal EOUSA’s initial response to his request and that EOUSA released all responsive records.

May 8, 2019

Chetal v. U.S. Dep't of Interior (N.D. Cal.) -- denying plaintiff’s motion for sanctions after finding that government produced records ordered to be released.

Am. Civil Liberties Union of Me. Found. v. DHS (D. Me.) -- upholding in part DHS’s Exemption 7(E) redactions to records concerning immigration investigations in which government officers stopped bus passengers to ask whether they are United States citizens.

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