Satterlee v. Comm'r of IRS (W.D. Mo.) -- dismissing action against IRS because plaintiff did not send request to appropriate official or address, but finding that request to Treasury used address “very similar” to address provided in agency regulations and should have been forwarded to appropriate office for processing.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Office of Legal Counsel Is Illegally Withholding Opinions from Public Scrutiny, Suit Alleges
Plaintiffs argue that 25-year-old documents are vital to understanding the Trump administration's decisions and should be made public under the 2016 FOIA reform.
By Courtney Buble, Gov. Exec., Aug. 23, 2019
A free speech institution, a nonprofit watchdog and several scholars filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Office of Legal Counsel for failing to fulfill Freedom of Information Act requests for decades-old documents they believe will shed light on current government surveillance activities, immigration policy and other significant issues. They argue the information should be released under a 2016 amendment to the law.
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The suit, brought by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the Campaign for Accountability and a group of scholars, is seeking documents related to FOIA requests for formal OLC opinions prior to Feb. 15, 1994.
Read more here.
Nat. Res. Def. Council v. EPA (S.D.N.Y.) -- concluding that EPA properly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold modeling computer program that evaluates cost and effectiveness of certain emission-reduction technologies. In reaching its decision, the court found that EPA had satisfied the statute’s foreseeable harm requirement.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Am. Civil Liberties Union v. DOD. (D. Mont.) -- determining that: (1) Army Corps of Engineers failed to perform adequate search for records concerning anticipated protests at Keystone XL pipeline and that if failed to justify withholdings pursuant to Exemptions 5 and 7(A); (2) Bureau of Land Management properly withheld information pursuant to attorney-client privilege, but failed to justify deliberative process privilege withholdings ; and (3) FBI properly refused to confirm or deny existence of records pursuant to Exemption 7(A).
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Smith v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- vacating its earlier opinion and finding that CIA properly refused to confirm or deny existence of intelligence budget, specifically line items supporting Israel from 1990 through 2015.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Prop. of People, Inc. v. OMB (D.D.C.) -- ruling that OMB properly withheld calendar entries related to National Security Council meetings pursuant to presidential communications privilege of Exemption 5.
Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund v. ATF (S.D.N.Y) -- holding that: (1) appropriations rider prohibiting expenditure of funds to release firearms trace information in response to FOIA requests does not qualify as Exemption 3 statute because it does not cite that statutory provision as required by 2009 FOIA amendments; and (2) request for various statistical information concerning firearms used in suicides or attempted suicides would not require creation of new records.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Humane Soc'y Int'l v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv. (D.D.C.) -- concluding that: (1) names of names of individual wildlife importers and exporters were properly withheld pursuant to Exemption 7(C); and (2) parties were required readdress whether disputed information was properly withheld under Exemption 4 in light of Supreme Court’s recent decision invalidating National Parks test.
Behar v. DHS (S.D.N.Y.) -- determining that U.S. Secret Service Service properly relied on Exemption 7(C) to withhold names of law enforcement personnel from records concerning Donald Trump’s meetings as presidential candidate and as president-elect, but that declarations did not sufficiently address privacy interests of other third parties.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten v. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs (D. Conn.) -- ruling that agency improperly relied on Exemption 6 to redact names of subject matter experts working on disability claims pertaining to contaminated water at Marine base Camp Lejune,
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Higgs v. U.S. Park Police (7th Cir.) -- reversing district court’s decision that FBI did not justify its use of Exemption 7(C) to withhold records about third parties involved in plaintiff’s triple-murder conviction . The Seventh Circuit found that even though record was not fully developed as to varying interests of third parties, plaintiff’s public interest arguments -- namely that disclosure would reveal government misconduct and educate public about DOJ’s execution of its law-enforcement duties - - could not not overcome those privacy interests.
N.Y. Legal Assistance Grp.. v. Bd. of Immigration Appeals (S.D.N.Y.) -- holding that neither FOIA nor Administrative Procedure Act permitted the court to order agency to publish requested material in electronic reading room.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Animal Legal Def. Fund v. USDA (9th Cir., 2019) -- affirming decision that district court had jurisdiction over plaintiff’s claim that USDA had policy or practice of denying plaintiff’s requests for expedited processing, and also affirming district court’s decision that threats to safety of animals do not fall within statute’s expedited processing provision -- nor, in dicta, within Exemption 7(F).
Cable New Network v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- denying FBI’s motion to reconsider prior opinion granting access to FBI declaration, rejecting argument that FBI had “effectively” invoked Exemption 3 despite never mentioning it in briefs or declarations.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.