FOIA News: International Right To Know Day

Today is "International Right to Know Day," which was established to raise awareness of the public's right to access government information.  This observance originated in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2002, when transparency advocates from around the world created a network of Freedom of Information Advocates (FOIA Network) and agreed to collaborate in promoting freedom of information initiatives.  In the United States, "Freedom of Information Day" is celebrated annually on or near March 16, which is James Madison's birthday.

FOIA News: OGIS issues report on U.S. Coast Guard's FOIA program

Today the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) issued a compliance report concerning the United State Coast Guard's FOIA program.  OGIS’s three primary findings are:

1. The Coast Guard is not effectively managing challenges created by decentralization;
2. Technology is under-utilized; and
3. Communication needs improvement.

Read full report here.

FOIA News: Green groups sue Commerce Department over FOIA’d crude export permits, environmental reviews

Green groups sue Commerce Department over FOIA’d crude export permits, environmental reviews

By Joshua Cain, FuelFix, Sept. 24, 2015

In November 2014, the Center of Biological Diversity and ForestEthics, both nonprofits based in the San Francisco area, sent a Freedom of Information Act request to get copies of any oil export permits being handed out by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

The groups also requested documents related to environmental reviews of the permits they argue are required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, which force federal agencies to determine the environmental impacts of any policies they enact.

The complaint that the groups filed on Thursday says that in response to their FOIA request, the BIS told them that the agency “has no responsive documents” on any environmental reviews. The agency also cited a rule in the original oil export ban that exempted permits issued by the BIS from open-records requests; the CBD and ForestEthics argue that that exemption expired in 2001.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Hillary Clinton vs. FOIA

Hillary Clinton vs. FOIA

By Kimberly A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 25, 2015

Of all the Clinton email revelations this week, none compared with a filing by the State Department in federal Judge Emmet Sullivan’s court in Washington on Monday. The filing was a response to a FOIA lawsuit brought in March by conservative organization Citizens United. The group demanded documents from Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state related to the Clinton Foundation and to the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. What the State Department revealed was a testament to the power of FOIA.

Congressional investigators can subpoena documents, but even if after long delays they get them, the investigators must trust that the agency handed over everything. The agency usually doesn’t. Under FOIA, by contrast, the agency is required by law to provide plaintiffs with a complete inventory and broad description of every document it has that pertains to the request—but is withholding. This is known as a Vaughn index. The State Department on Monday handed over its Vaughn index to Citizens United and, boy, are these email descriptions revealing.

We find that the State Department has—but is not releasing—an email chain between then-Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills and a Clinton Foundation board member about the secretary of state’s planned trip to Africa. We find that the State Department has—but is not releasing—emails between Ms. Mills and foundation staff discussing “invitations to foreign business executives to attend the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.” We find many undisclosed email chains in which State Department officials talk with Clinton Foundation officials about Bill Clinton speeches and Bill Clinton travel, including to events in North Korea and Congo.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued September 23, 2015

Rojas-Vega v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Serv. (D.D.C) -- upholding government's use of Exemptions 5, 6, 7(C), and 7(E) to withhold certain information pertaining to plaintiff's criminal conviction.

Summaries of all cases since April 2015 are available here.

FOIA News: White House Intervened In Dept. Of Energy FOIA Requests

White House Intervened In Dept. Of Energy FOIA Requests

By Kathryn Watson, Daily Caller, Sept. 24, 2015

White House officials intervened in public records requests made to the Department of Energy, but federal investigators don’t know how many because required records weren’t kept, according to a new report from the DoE’s Office of Inspector General.

Federal investigators found the DoE sent four of the 55 public records requests they analyzed to the White House for review, but the corresponding case files documenting actions taken on those requests were “incomplete,” the inspector general said.

“Without full retention of case documentation, particularly documents showing changes to redactions or exemptions used, it was impossible to know with certainty what changes were made when the documents went outside the department for review,” the inspector general said. “Further, the lack of case documents potentially makes it much more difficult to defend FOIA appeals.”

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA battle erupts at West Point

West Point women fire back at congressman

By Rebecca Kheel, The Hill, Sept. 24, 2015

A group of female West Point graduates is pushing back on a congressman who asked for the records of the first female Army Ranger School graduates by demanding his Ranger School records.

“If he thinks that Rangers lie and standards are arbitrarily ignored, maybe that was his experience,” Sue Fulton, who was in the first West Point class to include women, told the Army Times. “Maybe we should look into what his experience was.”

On Thursday, the West Point women submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the Ranger School records of Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.), the Army Times reported.

Last week, Russell sent a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh asking for documents on the Ranger School women’s test scores, injuries, evaluations and more.

He did so, he said, because of allegations that the standards were lowered to allow the women to graduate.

“The records request on the recent Ranger classes that included females is to investigate serious allegations that are being made by members of the military,” he wrote in Facebook post.

Read more here.  

Q&A: How to file a request in the Garden State

Q.   I would like to use the FOIA to request information from the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS).  How do I initiate this request?

A.  In New Jersey, you may submit an "Open Public Records Act" through the following centralized web site: http://www.state.nj.us/opra/.  The agency you should select is the Dep't of Human Services, under which DYFS operates.    

Court opinion issued Sept. 22, 2015

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. U.S. Dep't of Veterans Affairs (D.D.C.) -- deciding not to impose sanctions against the VA or its counsel after finding that their litigation tactics in FOIA case were not motivated by bad faith.  The court noted, however, that it remained "troubled by the cumulative effect of the decisions made along the way" by the government, namely the "multiplication of briefings and depositions", for which plaintiff was entitled to attorneys' fees, costs, and expenses. 

Summaries of all cases since April 2015 are available here.

FOIA News: FBI Said to Recover Personal E-Mails From Hillary Clinton Server

FBI Said to Recover Personal E-Mails From Hillary Clinton Server

By Del Quentin Wilber, Bloomberg, Sept. 22, 2015

The FBI has recovered personal and work-related e-mails from the private computer server used by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s success at salvaging personal e-mails that Clinton said had been deleted raises the possibility that the Democratic presidential candidate’s correspondence eventually could become public. The disclosure of such e-mails would likely fan the controversy over Clinton’s use of a private e-mail system for official business.

The FBI is investigating how and why classified information ended up on Clinton’s server. The probe probably will take at least several more months, according to the person, who described the matter on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing and deals with sensitive information.

Read more here.