FOIA News: House committee asks IG to investigate Interior’s FOIA processing

House requests investigation of Interior political appointees' review of public records

By Rebecca Beitsch & Miranda Green, The Hill, Sept. 6, 2019

The chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee requested a government watchdog investigate additional details in its ongoing probe of the Interior Department’s new public records policy, which allows political appointees to review and potentially withhold documents from release.

In a letter sent to the Interior’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) Friday, the committee asked for the OIG to additionally look into Interior’s Supplemental Awareness Review process.

Read more here.

FOIA News: ICYMI, FOIA Advisory Committee meeting

The FOIA Advisory Committee met on Thursday, September 5, 2019. If you missed it, here is the video of the proceedings, which is approximately three hours and eleven minutes in length. Stay tuned for a future post that recaps the major developments.

FOIA News: EPA rejecting requests submitted by email

EPA is latest agency to stop accepting FOIA requests via email

Following the FBI’s “gold standard,” the agency is directing requesters to file through a portal or snail mail

By JPat Brown, MuckRock, Sept. 3, 2019

Under the Environmental Protection Agency’s new FOIA regulations which were implemented back in July, the EPA is no longer accepting request submissions via email, joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation in requiring requests be made through an online portal or snail mail.

Read more here.

FOIA News: NYT plugs it FOIA work again

How The Times Uses FOIA to Obtain Information the Public Has a Right to Know

Our lawyer provides an update on why we’re still filing so many Freedom of Information Act lawsuits.

By David McCraw, NY Times, Sept. 2, 2019

The anonymous note was secretly tucked into an envelope, behind an official letter from a government agency denying our reporter’s request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

It apparently came from someone deep in the agency’s FOIA bureaucracy. The request sought government documents related to the president’s business interests. Typed in large-font print on plain paper, the inserted note said: “The processing of the request was highly irregular. The withholding was entirely unjustified ... The document was probably withheld for political reasons.”

Read more here.

See NYT’s similar article from 2017 here.

FOIA News: ICYMI, 9th Cir. rules that agencies can be compelled to post records online

Ninth Circuit: Courts Can Force Feds to Put Records Online

By Nicholas Iovino, Courthouse News Serv., Aug. 30, 2019

In a decision that will expand the power of courts to make government agencies post information online, the Ninth Circuit this week reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the removal of animal welfare compliance data from a U.S. Department of Agriculture website.

“The decision from the Ninth Circuit is a major victory for public advocates using the Freedom of Information Act,” said Christopher Berry, senior staff attorney for plaintiff Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF).

ALDF and three other groups sued the USDA in 2017 after it abruptly pulled animal welfare compliance data offline, a move the plaintiffs say frustrates their missions to fight animal cruelty and monitor government enforcement.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Scholars File Suit for OLC Opinions Issued Over 25 Years Ago

The Justice Department Can’t Keep Its Own Law Secret Forever

By Cristian Farias, Politico, Aug. 29, 2019

In 2016, Congress amended the Freedom of Information Act to place a 25-year cap on documents previously shielded by what the Justice Department calls “deliberative process privilege”—which the government has cited in the past to keep OLC’s precedent-setting legal opinions secret. By law, then, that type of privilege should no longer cover OLC decisions older than 25 years—though some or portions of them may still be kept from disclosure if, for example, they contain classified information. And neither should the department be allowed to claim attorney-client privilege over these opinions, which aren’t legal advice but controlling decisions of law.

With this understanding of the law and with an eye toward greater transparency, a group of scholars last week filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that Office of Legal Counsel memoranda that are at least 25 years old should be disclosed to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Among the plaintiffs are historians of presidential power, the civil rights movement, the laws of war, government surveillance and immigration—all areas where the government’s enormous discretion to enforce the law has been guided by legal judgments that our citizenry would be well served to understand and reckon with, even today. (The Justice Department didn’t comply with an earlier administrative request for these opinions.)

Read more here.

FOIA News: EPA IG's report ignores FOIA allegations against Pruitt

IG failed to review FOIA allegations against Pruitt

By Kevin Bogardus, E&E News , Aug. 27, 2019

EPA's internal watchdog did not review allegations against Scott Pruitt for failing to keep track of records or properly respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription)

FOIA News: Postal Service proposes fee waiver changes

The U.S. Postal Service intends to amend the fee waiver provisions of its FOIA regulations, according to a notice scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on August 26, 2019. Comments will be accepted through September 25, 2019.

FOIA News: More discovery approved in Clinton emails case

Judge orders more discovery in Clinton emails FOIA case

By Daniel Chaitin & Jerry Dunleavy, Wash. Exam’r, Aug. 23, 2019

A years-long legal fight over Hillary Clinton's emails took another turn when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered additional fact-finding from State Department officials on Thursday.

U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth authorized nearly all of what conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch sought in a recent status report for its case related to the former secretary of state's unauthorized email server, including the depositions of seven Department officials over the next four months. This includes Jamie Bair, an attorney in the Office of Legal Adviser who was assigned to Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information request and its lawsuit, and Tasha Thian, a State Department records officer who wrote about Clinton's email practices in a 2018 book. Three of the officials' names are redacted.

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee survey

In case you missed it, the FOIA Advisory Committee is seeking input on the FOIA process from government officials and requesters via customized surveys. Agency FOIA professionals can access the survey here, while FOIA requesters can access the survey here. The survey is open through Labor Day.