Q. I need to get a copy of the film at the intersection where my car was hit by a transit bus in Albany, NY. The police have confirmed that there is a camera at that intersection and I need the information for the insurance company.
A. To make a Freedom of Information Law ("FOIL") request for any records maintained by the City of Albany, please see the following instructions from the city's website.
Dec. 29, 2016
Powell v. IRS (E.D. Mich.) -- adopting magistrate's report and recommendation finding that: (1) plaintiff did not exhaust his administrative remedies or follow agency regulations regarding several requests; (2) IRS conducted a reasonable search for responsive records; and (3) IRS was not required to re-release certain records that it previously provided to plaintiff.
Dec. 28, 2016
Braun v. FBI (D. Mont.) -- ruling that FBI properly withheld records of "unspecified investigations" sought by pro se plaintiff pursuant to Exemptions 3 (31 U.S.C. § 5319), 6, 7(C), and 7(E).
Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.
Q. I am writing a biography of an individual who served in the USAF for 25 years. I have a significant piece of his history from his time served in Vietnam but would like to review the remainder of his military history. Would I be permitted to file a FOIA request for the remainder of his disclosable military history and expect a positive result? He is not a relative.
A. If you do not have the written consent of a veteran or his next-of-kin, you may still be able to obtain various information from the veteran's Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) via the Freedom of Information Act. See examples of releasable information here.
To submit your request, you'll first need to figure out where to send it, which depends upon the veteran's date of discharge. See this chart for instructions. You may submit your request using Standard Form 180 or by a letter that provides the same information requested in the SF-180.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has amended its FOIA regulations to incorporate changes made by the FOIA Improvement Act off 2016, according to a notice published in today's Federal Register. The NRC bypassed the normal notice and comment period, claiming that "good cause" existed for waiver, i.e., comments were either "impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest."
Per a notice published today in the Federal Register, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has proposed to amend its FOIA regulations in order to implement the changes required by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, as well as to update two district offices addresses and the Office of Legal Counsel's fax number.
Comments are due on or before January 30, 2017.
OGIS Blog, Dec. 28, 2016
We are happy to announce the release of our latest FOIA compliance assessment – the Privacy Office of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This office, which is led by the agency’s Chief Privacy & FOIA Officer, issues FOIA guidance to DHS’s components, monitors component performance, and issues required reports. Like our previously released assessments, this report is based on interviews of key FOIA staff and a review of FOIA policy and documents. What makes this report a little different is that it also includes observations made during our compliance assessments of the FOIA programs at six DHS components. We took this approach in recognition of the unique role that the Chief Privacy & FOIA Officer has in leading DHS’s FOIA program.
Read more here.
By Alexandra Ellerbeck, Committee to Protect Journalists, Dec. 27, 2016
Obama's decision to keep the report classified is at odds with his pledge to run "the most open and transparent [administration] in history." On his first day in office, Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies urging them to embrace transparency. CPJ and civil rights groups have documented how, in the following years, his administration aggressively prosecuted leakers, surveilled journalists in leak investigations, used the state secrets privilege to suppress evidence in courts about torture and the government's no fly list, and set a record for the use of legal exceptions in responding to freedom of information act requests. In 2013, CPJ published a special report, "The Obama Administration and the Press," that was critical of the administration's record on transparency.
With a new administration taking power under a president-elect whose actions so far--including his refusal to release his tax returns, ditching the press pool on occasion after being elected and, by late December, not holding a press conference since his electoral victory--run counter to a transparent administration, journalists and press freedom advocates said they are concerned about access and commitments to transparency.
Read more here.
Sunlight Foundation, Dec. 23, 2016
Dear Director Pustay,
We welcome the opportunity to comment upon the Department’s proposed “release-to-one, release-to-all” policy for fulfilling requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. The Sunlight Foundation strongly supports the proposal overall, with some specific concerns regarding individual components in the draft regarding overly broad exemptions and exceptions.
As a decade-old nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to using journalism, advocacy and technology to improving the transparency and accountability of our politics and government, we see great potential for this approach to improve public knowledge of the operations of government, reduce the costs of administering one of the core sunshine laws of the nation, and reduce asynchronies in the disclosure of government data that are providing an unintended subsidy to industry.
Read more from the letter to DOJ OIP here.
Electronic Frontier Found. v. Dep't of Justice (N.D. Cal.) -- determining that Drug Enforcement Agency failed to demonstrate that certain records concerning Hemisphere project were protected from disclosure under Exemptions 5, 7(A), 7(D) or 7(E), and ordering agency to produce for in camera inspection all records withheld under Exemption 7(E).
Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.
Behrens v. U.S. Attorney, Dist. of Neb., (D.D.C.) -- concluding that the Executive Office for U.S. Attorney conducted an adequate search of plaintiff's criminal case file despite failing to find requested document.
Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.