Buckovetz v. U.S. Dep't of the Navy (S.D. Cal.) -- holding that the agency properly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) to withhold identities of third parties from records associated with a sexual harassment complaint, but that agency's declaration failed to adequately explain its search methodology.
Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.
Maritime Executive, Nov. 7, 2016
Four U.S. industry trade groups have submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to both the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) seeking information related to the recent “drastic” changes to the financial assurances and bonding required of offshore oil and gas producers.
BOEM enacted a modified user pay scheme in July to ensure that U.S. taxpayers never have to pay for offshore oil and gas platform decommissioning. All outer continental shelf leases require that decommissioning companies must remove all facilities and restore the site to its pre-lease state. However, due in part to the industry’s move into deepwater areas in the Gulf of Mexico, decommissioning costs have risen significantly, says BOEM. Moreover, as existing infrastructure ages, larger companies are transferring older facilities to smaller or less experienced companies.
Current estimated routine decommissioning liabilities in the outer continental shelf are approximately $40 billion.
Read more here.
By Josh Gerstein, Politico, Nov. 7, 2016
A federal judge signaled Monday that he's not inclined to agree to a timetable for the release of FBI-recovered Hillary Clinton emails that could have the records dribbling out over the next five years.
U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg made the comment during a hearing on a Freedom of Information Act case brought by the conservative group Judicial Watch where the State Department is currently processing 500 pages per month.
With as many as 31,000 emails contained on disks the FBI turned over but State has not yet processed for release, the current pace in the case Boasberg addressed Monday could stretch out for several years.
"I'm not satisfied with saying, 'Fine, go ahead and take five years to do this,'" Boasberg said during a half-hour hearing in federal court in Washington.
Read more here.
By Tony Ware, Federal Times, Nov. 7, 2016
The Cause of Action Institute has sued the Department of Treasury in order to procure records detailing the agency’s “sensitive review” policy.
The CoA Institute, a nonprofit corporation concerned with government accountability, filed the lawsuit on Nov. 1 in order to compel public disclosure of policies that can delay Freedom of Information Act record requests. The CoA has been pursuing this information since June 2013, when it submitted a FOIA request to learn more about how politically sensitive or potentially embarrassing information can slow open records being fulfilled.
Read more here.
Q. Can the Michigan FOIA be used to obtain the video of a public high school football game, from that high schools athletic department? I am trying to scout an opponent and they are refusing to give me the video of their game.
A. A public high school is considered a "public body" subject to Michigan's FOIA. Although none of the exemptions enumerated in section 15.243 of the statute strike me as directly applicable to the videotape you seek, I can only speculate that the high school considers the videotape to be confidential to the same extent as its football team's written playbook -- which, if disclosed, would clearly undermine its operations. It is also possible that the high school considers the videotape to be an "education record" protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
For further information, you might wish to review the FOIA guidance provided by the Michigan Attorney General's office.
Schotz v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- (1) denying pro se plaintiff's motion to reconsider decision in the Federal Bureau of Prison's favor, because records released by BOP in response to a different request did not qualify as "new evidence" nor did it undermine the reasonableness of the agency's search; (2) denying plaintiff's motion for costs because plaintiff did not prevail by judicial order, the lawsuit was not the proximate cause of agency's release of records, plaintiff sought records for purely personal reasons, and the agency's uncontested withholdings were reasonable.
Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.
By Josh Gerstein, Politico, Nov. 4, 2016
A federal appeals court appears poised to revive a lawsuit demanding that the State Department set in motion a process that could trigger government-backed litigation to recover additional emails sent or received by Hillary Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Friday on a pair of lawsuits seeking to force Secretary of State John Kerry to formally notify the National Archives that Clinton's emails were unlawfully removed from government custody. Such a move could lead to a Justice Department lawsuit under the Federal Records Act, seeking to force Clinton and her aides to return any government records in their possession.
During roughly 40 minutes of arguments, two judges on the D.C. Circuit panel, Stephen Williams and Brett Kavanuagh seemed inclined to revive at least one of the suits: a complaint brought by the conservative group Judicial Watch.
The third appellate judge at Friday's hearing, Robert Wilkins, sounded supportive of the district court's ruling tossing the cases out as moot.
Read more here.
Listen to the oral argument here.
Muchnick v. DHS (N.D. Cal.) -- issuing a tentative order, pending resolution between the parties, that: (1) DHS must release information about the alleged crimes of George Gibney, decisions about immigration benefits he sought, and the dates any documents containing such information were created; (2) DHS may withhold, pursuant to Exemptions 6 and 7(C), all identifying information about third parties other than Gibney, as well as Gibney's past addresses, salary history, Alien number, and the like; and (3) DHS may redact records revealing the investigative procedures it used to obtain information about Gibney, but not the information itself, pursuant to Exemption 7(E).
Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.
By Oliver Darcy, Business Insider, Nov. 3, 2016
A conservative-leaning law group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, alleging the federal agency violated the law by ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests for records related to Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton.
“We’re forcing their hand,” Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, wrote in a blog post announcing the lawsuit.
Sekulow added: “We’re taking the Obama Administration to federal court. Again. We’re filing a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, to ensure true justice.”
The ACLJ initially sent FOIA requests to the DOJ requesting information on Lynch’s meeting with Clinton.
The records requested included documents “containing any discussion of or in any way regarding the meeting between” the two at the Phoenix airport and electronic communications “containing any discussion of or in any way naming, regarding, involving or referring Clinton.”
Read more here.
By Tim Ryan, Courthouse News Service, Nov. 3, 2016
An "immigration-reform" group sued the FBI and Bureau of Prison on Tuesday, seeking information it claims will show that the government undercounts crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) also sued the Office of Justice Programs in the federal FOIA complaint, seeking raw data from a Government Accountability Office report "relating to criminal aliens with arrests dating from August 1955 to April 2010."
FAIR says it submitted the FOIA request on behalf of Don Rosenberg, a resident of California ... [whose] son, Drew Rosenberg, was killed by an illegal alien in 2010."
In a statement announcing its lawsuit Wednesday, FAIR said: "That report, published in 2011 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), attributed, at a minimum, over 20,000 killings of U.S. citizens and lawful residents to illegal aliens. Mr. Rosenberg's research indicates the figures are far higher."
Read more here.