Court opinions issued May 12, 2022

Transgender Law Ctr. v. Immigration & Customs Enf't (9th Cir.) -- reversing district court and finding that: (1) DHS agencies failed to show “beyond material doubt” that they conducted adequate search for records concerning asylum-seeker's death in federal custody; (2) government’s Vaughn Indices failed to provide sufficient detail to permit review of withholdings; (3) court erred in treating all drafts as necessarily covered by Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege; (4) agencies improperly withheld email domain addresses of agency employees under Exemptions 6 and 7(C); (5) agencies failed to distinguish whether records withheld under Exemption 7(E) were law enforcement techniques and procedure or guidelines; and (6) agencies failed to provide sufficient detail concerning its segregability analysis.

Synopsys, Inc. v. DOL (9th Cir.) (unpublished) -- affirming district court’s decisions that: (1) company untimely moved to intervene after summary judgment was granted to FOIA requester seeking access to company’s employment data (EEO-1 reports); and (2) DOL was entitled to summary judgment in company’s reverse-FOIA action, finding that APA claim on Exemption 4 grounds was precluded by Supreme Court precedent.

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

Court opinion issued May 9, 2022

Emuwa v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- concluding on remand that D.C. Circuit’s foreseeable harm opinion in Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press v. FBI did not warrant revision of court’s initial decision granting summary judgment to government on Exemption 5 grounds.

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

Court opinion issued May 5, 2022

Anthony v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons (W.D. La.) -- holding that venue was improper because plaintiff’s incarceration in Louisiana did not confer residency in that state, requiring case to be transferred to the District of Columbia in absence of evidence of plaintiff’s residency elsewhere.

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

Court opinions issued Apr. 28, 2022

Zirvi v. NIH (D.N.J.) -- concluding that: (1) multiple agencies properly relied on Exemption 4 to withhold records concerning a biotechnology company; (2) plaintiff’s belief that withheld documents would show existence of criminal conduct did not undermine exemptions or warrant discovery or in camera review; and (3) plaintiff was neither eligible nor entitled to costs.

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff’s motion to strike agency’s declaration in connection with plaintiff’s requests for COVID-19 data and cost and staffing data related to federal executions.

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

Court opinions issued Apr. 26, 2022

Nat’l Student Legal Def. Net. v. U.S. Dep’t of Educ. (D.D.C.) -- ruling that Department of Education performed adequate search for certain federal student aid-related records received from the Social Security Administration, notwithstanding department’s failure to locate two additional SSA records that the department was required by regulation to request from SSA annually.

100Reporters v. U.S. Dep’t of State (D.D.C.) — finding that: (1) Department failed to adequately search for reports to Congress concerning vetting of foreign security personnel; (2) Department properly withheld some, but not all, vetting records pursuant to Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege and noting that agencies are not required to trace lineage of each draft document to ensure that it has not been adopted as agency’s final position; (3) Department failed to provide sufficient evidence to show that names of foreign security officials were protected under Exemptions 6 or 7(C); (4) Department properly withheld most, but not all, records pursuant to Exemption 7(E); and (5) Department failed to identify any authority that would authorize Court to order plaintiffs to return inadvertently released records, regardless of whether those records are protected under various exemptions, including Exemption 7(F).

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

Court opinion issued Apr. 19, 2022

Property of the People v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- following in camera review of 50 sample documents concerning Donald Trump before his presidential campaign, ruling that FBI was not required to expend “considerable” resources in order release non-exempt information because “it would result in negligible, if any, meaningful information going to Plaintiffs.”

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

Court opinions issued Apr. 13-14, 2022

Apr. 14, 2022

Vollmann v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- finding that plaintiff was both eligible for and entitled to attorney’s fees regarding his pursuit of records concerning himself, but reducing amount of the award due to excessive time and excessive hourly rates charged.

Apr. 13, 2022

Buzzfeed Inc. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- determining that plaintiff was eligible for attorney’s fees because DOJ had been ordered to produce one email by a certain date, but that plaintiff was not entitled to fees because DOJ’s untimely response was reasonably excused by its backlog of prior FOIA requests and the breadth of plaintiff’s request.

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

Court opinion issued Apr. 11, 2022

Louise Trauma Ctr. v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- deciding that: (1) USCIS did not conduct adequates searches for guidance materials used for new asylum officers or concerning FOIA’s reasonable harm provision; (2) USCIS did not justify its reliance on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege, but other records were properly withheld under attorney work-product privilege; (3) USCIS properly withheld names of third party trainers under Exemption 6; and (4) except for one page, USCIS properly used Exemption 7(E) to withhold “sensitive techniques used by asylum officers to conduct interviews and consider applications.

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

Court opinion issued Apr. 8, 2022

Matthews v. EOUSA (5th Cir.) (unpublished) -- affirming district court’s decision that requester’s timeliness claims became moot once agencies responded to his requests.

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

Court opinions issued Apr. 6, 2022

Knight First Amendment Inst at Columbia Univ. v. USCIS (2nd Cir.) -- reversing district court’s decision in case related to vetting immigrants entering the country and ruling, in most relevant part, that: (1) Department of State properly withheld portions of its Foreign Affairs Manual pursuant to Exemption 7(E); and (2) USCIS properly withheld terrorism-related questions pursuant to Exemption 7(E), rejecting argument that law enforcement techniques or procedures must be “special or technical” to be protected; further finding that requester did not carry its burden to show that the questions at issue were ”publicly available.”

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