FOIA News: FOIA site MuckRock launches new efforts to let users track projects and contribute to reporting costs

FOIA site MuckRock launches new efforts to let users track projects and contribute to reporting costs

By Joseph Lichterman, NiemanLab, Sept. 3, 2015

MuckRock is also debuting project pages that will highlight groups of FOIA requests and let users follow specific stories.

For the past year, Beryl C.D. Lipton has been investigating the private prison system in the United States. She’s a reporter for MuckRock, a news site that covers government transparency issues and also helps its users access government documents.

Lipton has filed about 1,000 Freedom of Information Act requests, and she plans to visit some prisons to continue her reporting.

But between travel costs and fees for records requests, the type of reporting that Lipton is doing is expensive. And readers who are interested in following her work may have difficulty keeping track of all the different requests she’s made and documents she’s uncovered.

To address these concerns, MuckRock plans to debut two new features on Thursday that will make it easier for users to follow specific stories and contribute to reporting costs.

Read more here.

FOIA News: ICYMI, DOJ releases updated guidance on Exemptions 3 and 7(F)

On August 13, 2015, the Office of Information Policy issued updated versions of Exemptions 3 and 7(F) in its online "Department of Justice Guide to Freedom of Information Act."  The oldest sections of the Guide are now Proactive Disclosures, Exemption 4, Exemption 7(A), and Reverse FOIA, which have not been updated since 2009.  

Court opinions issued August 31, 2015

Rubman v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs. & U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec. (7th Cir.) -- concluding that agency "failed to conduct an adequate search . . . when it unilaterally narrowed [plaintiff's] request for 'all documents' to a single, newly generated statistical table."

Citizens for a Strong New Hampshire v. Internal Revenue Serv. (D.N.H.) -- ruling that IRS properly withheld correspondence from taxpayers, through their Congressmen, pursuant to Exemption 3 and Section 6103 of Internal Revenue Code.  The court further determined that a genuine factual dispute existed about the adequacy of the agency's search, and it stated that it would schedule a conference of the parties to discuss prospect of a rare FOIA trial. 

Agolli v. Office of Inspector Gen. (D.D.C) -- dismissing plaintiff's claims stemming from her 2006 FOIA request because the six-year statute of limitations ran before she filed suit; further finding that the Department of Justice's Office of Information Policy conducted an adequate search for records in response to plaintiff's 2014 request.

Summaries of all cases since April 2015 are available here.

Q&A: college police records

Q. If I submit a request to a private college in Massachusetts for a copy of its police logs, will it need to comply and what is the response deadline?

A.  No.  In 2006, the Massachusetts Supreme Court held that the records of Harvard's campus police were not subject to the State's open records law.  Here is a link to the court's decision:  http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/445/445mass745.html. 

FOIA News: Feds move to consolidate lawsuits over Hillary Clinton emails

Feds move to consolidate lawsuits over Hillary Clinton emails

By Josh Gerstein, Politico, Sept. 1, 2015

The Justice Department is preparing to ask a federal judge to consolidate an unwieldy flurry of pending lawsuits which demand copies of emails sent or received by Hillary Clinton or her top aides, sources told POLITICO Tuesday.

The planned move raises the possibility that dozens of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits could be placed in front of a single judge--at least for a a period of time--in order to avoid conflicting schedules for the release of records.

The proposed action is not expected to alter plans for monthly public releases of Clinton's emails, but could temporarily halt orders to produce emails her aides have turned over to the State Department in recent weeks in response to the agency's requests. Justice plans to ask that disclosures of those records be put on hold until the motion to coordinate the cases is resolved.

Because of that potential delay, at least some of the FOIA litigants are expected to fight the consolidation move.

Read more here.

FOIA News: More Clinton emails released in "Vice" FOIA lawsuit

Emails show Hillary's political sleuthing

By Josh Gerstein, POLITICO, September 1, 2015

A new batch of Hillary Clinton's emails made public by the State Department Monday night show her expressing interest in the presidential aspirations of Gen. David Petraeus, who ultimately took a job as CIA director in the Obama administration instead of running for president in 2012 and was then driven out of government by scandal.

Clinton--who's now the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination next year--sounded intrigued when her longtime friend Sidney Blumenthal reported to her on a Saturday morning in February 2010 that prominent Washington foreign policy blogger Steve Clemons said Petraeus was talking frankly about the possibility of running for the White House.

"Clemons had dinner this week with Petraeus, who freely talked about running for president," Blumenthal wrote to Clinton.

"Will he write about Petraeus?" Clinton wrote back five minutes later.

Moments later, Blumenthal sent Clinton Clemons' post mentioning the off-the-record dinner and discussing the relative political merits of Petraeus, Vice President Joe Biden and Clinton herself.

"Clemons... told me more detail about [Petraeus'] attitude and interest," Blumenthal said, adding a couple of nuggets.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued August 28, 2015

Cause of Action v. Internal Revenue Serv. (D.D.C.) -- granting in part and denying in part the parties' motions for summary judgment.  With respect to plaintiff's request for FOIA-related records pertaining to Section 6103 of Internal Revenue Code, the court held that the IRS conducted an adequate search and that its withholdings from these records were proper under Exemption 5 (deliberative process privilege).  As for plaintiff's request for any requests by the Executive Office of the President for tax information, the court held that IRS properly withheld "tax check" records under Section 6103, but that: (a) any other requests would not be protected by Section 6103, and (b) the search described by the agency was inadequate. Regarding plaintiff's request for any federal agency requests for tax information, the court rejected the IRS's argument that any responsive records would be protected by Section 6103 and/or Exemptions 6 and 7(C).  

Note:  Mr. Blutstein co-represented Cause of Action in this case.

Envtl. Integrity Project v. Small Bus. Admin. (D.D.C.) -- determining after in camera  review that SBA properly withheld all records responsive to plaintiff's request pursuant to the deliberative process privilege. 

Summaries of all cases since April 2015 are available here.

Court opinions issued August 26, 2015

Ibeagwa v. Internal Revenue Serv. (W.D. Wis.) -- denying pro se plaintiff's motions for costs and attorney fees.  The court found that IRS's disclosure of one of two requested documents after the filing of lawsuit made plaintiff eligible for costs, but that plaintiff was not entitled to costs because disclosure of his tax records would not benefit the public. With respect to attorney fees, the court found that a pro se party is not eligible for attorney fees, that plaintiff's motion was untimely, and that disclosure of his tax records would not benefit the public.  

Love v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- ruling that the Drug and Enforcement Administration properly refused to confirm or deny existence of records pertaining to a third party, and that it properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 7(C), 7(D), and 7(E).

Sack v. Cent. Intelligence Agency (D.D.C.) -- granting CIA's motion for reconsideration and vacating the court's earlier Order extending plaintiff's time to file a notice of appeal, because plaintiff's motion for an extension of time had been filed too late.

Summaries of all cases since April 2015 are available here.

FOIA News: Administration is evading the law, reports National Review

How Obama Officials Dodge the Freedom of Information Act

By John Fund, National Review, August 28, 2015

During the Watergate era, delaying tactics by government officials were dubbed “stonewalling.” Obama-administration officials seem to have added an element of farce to their cover-ups by literally going to the dogs.  This week, the IRS admitted in court, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the watchdog group Judicial Watch, that Lois Lerner was even more secretive than we thought. Lerner, the IRS official who resigned in 2013 after allegedly discriminating against applications for nonprofit status from conservative groups, conducted much of her IRS business on a personal e-mail account in the name of her dog, Toby Miles.

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, says there is evidence that the Obama Justice Department and the IRS have known about the Toby Miles account for some time but chose not to tell the court. A House committee months ago urged that a criminal inquiry of Lerner be initiated by the Justice Department, but so far it has been ignored. 

Read more here.

Court opinions issued August 24-25, 2015

August 25, 2015

Cause Action v. Fed. Trade Comm'n (D.C. Cir.) -- reversing district court's decision that the last of plaintiff's three requests was moot for purposes of determining its fee status; further clarifying the definition of a "representative of the news media" and ordering district court to evaluate plaintiff's status in light of D.C. Circuit's opinion.  See related article here.    

[Note: Mr. Blutstein co-represented Cause of Action in this appellate case] 

Willaman v. Erie Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms (3rd Cir.) -- affirming ATF's determination that plaintiff's request was not reasonably described inasmuch as it consisted of a question, which FOIA does not require an agency to answer.

August 24, 2015

Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Serv. (D.D.C.) -- granting IRS's motion for summary judgment after finding that records located by the agency consisted of "return information," which plaintiff had stipulated would not be responsive to its request; further finding that plaintiff conceded the adequacy of the agency's search by failing to oppose the agency's arguments pertaining to the subject.    

Summaries of all cases since April 2015 are available here.