FOIA News: D.C. mayor warns of big costs if city must release police body-camera video

D.C. mayor warns of big costs if city must release police body-camera video

By Aaron C. Davis, Washington Post, June 23, 2015

The District faces a new problem in rolling out body cameras to half its patrol officers this year, one that Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Tuesday could imperil the city’s balanced budget.

Bowser warned members of the D.C. Council that if they rebuff her request to keep body camera footage private, the city could see a bill of $1.5 million annually.

The liability could keep the city’s chief financial officer from certifying the budget, Bowser warned.

Debates about cost and privacy have led officials in more than a dozen states to propose restricting or withholding access to police body-camera footage from the public. Most major cities have gone that route, while some, including Seattle, have made blurry versions of all footage available over the Internet.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Judicial Watch Sues for Clinton Secret Service Costs

Cost of Secret Service protection of Bill Clinton's ride on 'Lolita Express' sought

By Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner, June 23, 2015

The taxpayer watchdog group Judicial Watch announced Tuesday that it filed suit for the costs of U.S. Secret Service protection of former President Bill Clinton when he rode on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's private jet, dubbed the "Lolita Express."

The group filed suit after the Department of Homeland Security failed to comply with a prior Freedom of Information Act request from earlier this year.

Read more here.

FOIA News: NARA wants input on FOIA modernization

NARA wants input on FOIA modernization

By Ryan McDermott, FierceGovernment, June 23, 2015

Agencies have come under fire for not being proactive about handing over documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act. So as part of FOIA modernization efforts, the National Archives and Records Administration is reaching out to the public to find out what they see as faults in the process.

The road to modernization has been a bumpy one for NARA and other agencies and the Archives wants to know what it can do to make things better as it starts planning for its third iteration of the open government National Action Plan.

Read more here.

Q&A: may a FOIA appeals officer file a declaration in ensuing litigation?

Q.  Is it generally accepted in FOIA law for a FOIA Appeals Officer, after deciding a claimant's appeal of a FOIA production, to sign a declaration in support of the government's Motion for Summary Judgment?

A.   Rule 56(c)(4) of the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure provides that an "affidavit or declaration used to support or oppose a motion must be made on personal knowledge, set out facts that would be admissible in evidence, and show that the affiant or declarant is competent to testify on the matters stated."   The agency employee who has adjudicated a FOIA appeal -- or the initial request -- is not legally precluded from executing an affidavit in subsequent litigation involving the same matter.  Indeed, given his or her personal knowledge of the case, the adjudicating officer and the agency declarant in litigation are frequently one and the same.    

FOIA News: Homeland Security found in violation of open-records law

Homeland Security found in violation of open-records law

By Mike Carter, Seattle Times, June 21, 2015

A federal judge has found “egregious” violations of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the Department of Homeland Security for failing to respond to a request for information about the telephone costs for immigrant detainees.

U.S. District Chief Judge Marsha Pechman, in an order issued Thursday, chastised the department and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for ignoring Prison Legal News’ FOIA request for information about how the agency determines telephone-call rates for detainees.

The FOIA was part of a larger, mostly successful effort by the advocacy group to control the costs that prison systems and telephone-service contractors charge inmates to make phone calls.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued June 18, 2015

Prison Legal News v. U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec. (W.D. Wash.) -- determining that Exemption 4 did not protect company's 2009 performance incentive rate; declaring that government's delay in responding to FOIA request was "egregious," and stating that plaintiff was eligible and entitled to reasonable attorney fees.   

Summaries of all cases since April 2015 are available here. 

FOIA News: Court reopens another suit against State Department

Judge reopens FOIA case on Hillary Clinton aide Abedin

By Josh Gerstein, POLITICO, June 19, 2015

Reacting to the disclosure that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a private email account during her tenure as secretary of state, a federal judge agreed Friday to reopen a conservative group's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking details about the employment arrangements of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

However, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan declined — for now — to address claims from Judicial Watch that Clinton's use of the private account and server led State Department officials to commit a fraud on the court by certifying they had turned over all responsive records.

"In view of revelations that then-Secretary of State Clinton and members of her staff used personal email accounts to conduct State Department business, and that emails from those accounts may not have been covered by State Department searches for documents responsive to the FOIA request at issue in this case, the plaintiff seeks to reopen this case for further proceedings," Sullivan noted in an order Friday. "The newly discovered information is a changed circumstance regarding the prior judgment in this case--i.e. the stipulated dismissal in 2014."

Read more here. 

Court opinions issued June 17, 2015

ACLU v. DOJ (N.D. Cal.) -- deciding that EOUSA and Criminal Division properly withheld vast majority of legal templates concerning government's use of mobile tracking technology under Exemption 5 (attorney work product), but rejecting government's reliance on Exemption 7(E).

Summaries of all cases since April 2015 are available here. 

Court opinions issued June 16, 2015

Murphy v. Exec. Office for U.S. Attorneys (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming district court's decision that grand jury information, including dates and times when grand jury convened, was properly withheld pursuant to Exemption 3.

Gahagan v. U.S. Customs & Border Prot. (E.D. La.) -- finding that government's declarations were not per se deficient for failing to identify the individual who conducted the search; (2) CBP and ICE did not establish that adequate searches were conducted, but Dep't of State made adequate showing; (3) State properly withheld visa information pursuant to Exemption 3 (8 U.S.C.  § 1202(f)); and (4) records withheld by CPB and ICE required in camera inspection.   

Kowack v. U.S. Forest Serv. (D. Mont.) -- ruling after in camera inspection of withheld records that agency did not properly apply Exemption 6.  

Summaries of all cases since April 2015 are available here. 

FOIA News: Senate rejects attempt to weaken FOIA — for now

Senate rejects attempt to weaken FOIA — for now

By Matthew Rumsey, Sunlight Foundation, June 17, 2015

The Senate debate over the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is always controversial — in part because of the upper chamber's insistence on marking the bill up in a secret session. But this year's bill, which is being wrapped up on the floor this week, was punctuated by a win for open government.

When the NDAA came to the floor last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to attach a controversial cybersecurity measure as an amendment. While most senators appear to support the broad idea of the bill (known as the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA) it includes several highly controversial provisions — including one that would add an entirely new exemption to FOIA. Thanks to these provisions, privacy and transparency advocates, Sunlight included, have vehemently opposed the bill.

Read more here.