FOIA Advisor

Court opinions issued Feb. 21, 2017

Court Opinions (2015-2024)Ryan MulveyComment

Calderon v. U.S. Dep't of Agric. (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) Exemption 4 applies to some but not all requested information concerning Export Credit Guarantee Program overseen by Foreign Agricultural Service; (2) Exemption 6 protected email addresses and telephone numbers of company employees, but not their names or business addresses.

N.Y. Times v. DOJ (S.D.N.Y.) -- granting in part and denying in part the parties' summary judgment motion in case involving the applicability of Exemption 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7(C) to five memoranda relating to agency's investigation into legality of certain CIA overseas interrogations. 

Elec. Privacy Info. Ctr. v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- ruling that the FBI failed to conduct an adequate search or to properly justify its use of Exemption 7(E), and granting the agency an opportunity to supplement the record to demonstrate that the requested unpublished privacy assessments meet Exemption 7(E)'s threshold "compiled for law enforcement purposes" requirement.

Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- granting agency's motion for summary judgment in case concerning thirty documents about former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's non-"state.gov" e-mail communications, which had been withheld in full under Exemption 5, in conjunction with the deliberative process privilege, and rejecting requester's invocation of the government-misconduct exception.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued Feb. 16 & 17, 2017

FOIA News (2015-2024)Allan BlutsteinComment

Feb. 17, 2017

Pinson v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that DOJ: (1) performed adequate searches in response to seven of eleven FOIA requests; (2) failed to prove the applicability of deliberative process privilege to After-Action Reports; (3) failed to prove that Exemption 6 categorically applied to all names, addresses, and case numbers concerning Federal Bureau of Prison litigation settlements; and (4) properly withheld only certain information for which it invoked Exemptions 7(C) and/or 7(F).   

Feb. 16, 2017

Pulliam v. EPA (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) EPA, DOJ, and DOD failed to perform adequate searches for records related to an investigation into toxic contamination occurring at former Army base; (2) DOD properly invoked Exemption 6 to redact names, email addresses, and phone numbers of junior personnel.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

FOIA News: Interview with drafter of original FOIA

FOIA News (2015-2024)Allan BlutsteinComment

Mark Schlefer and the Federal Freedom of Information Act

By Nancy A. Olson, Bennington Banner, Feb. 17, 2017

Mark Schlefer helped to make history.

Schlefer was one of the three lawyers who drafted the legislation that became the federal Freedom of Information Act, and he helped to guide it through Congress to President Lyndon B. Johnson's desk. Johnson signed the bill into law on July 4, 1966, to take effect one year later.

"In the drafting, we were adamant that you didn't have to have an interest to have access," Schlefer said in an interview. "You could just be a citizen. This was critical."

Read more here.
 

FOIA News: USDA reposts certain animal welfare records

FOIA News (2015-2024)Allan BlutsteinComment

USDA reposts some animal welfare records after outcry

BY Lydia Wheeler, The Hill, Feb. 17, 2017

The Department of Agriculture on Friday reposted some of the animal welfare records it had removed from its website, after outcry from animal rights groups when the material was taken down.

The documents that were removed earlier this month included records of animal welfare violations at zoos, commercial breeders and research labs.

USDA claimed it removed the records as part of a comprehensive review to balance the need for transparency with rules that protect individual privacy.

In a statement Friday, the agency said it reposted the first batch of annual reports of research institutions and inspection reports for certain federal research facilities.

Read more here.

FOIA News: As FBI, others move to FOIA portals, email options disappear

FOIA News (2015-2024)Ryan MulveyComment

As FBI, others move to FOIA portals, email options disappear

Emma Lux, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Feb. 17, 2017

The Federal Bureau of Investigation no longer will allow individuals seeking public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to file requests via email, according to several reports, and several other agencies are following suit.

Read more here.

FOIA News: HHS Only Department to Meet Obama's FOIA Backlog Reduction Order

FOIA News (2015-2024)Ryan MulveyComment

HHS Only Department to Meet Obama's FOIA Backlog Reduction Order

Swetha Kareti, National Security Archive, Feb. 9, 2017

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the only cabinet level agency that was able to meet President Obama’s 2009 instruction to reduce FOIA backlogs by 10 percent per year. Out of the 15 federal departments surveyed, HHS reduced its backlog by 12.7 percent* per year. The average for all federal departments was an 8.21 percent increase. The departments of Homeland Security, State, and Housing and Urban Development are some of the worst offenders, with an average increase of nearly 30 percent per year.

Read more here.

Q&A: Ex-husband's military pension

Q&A (2015-2024)Ryan MulveyComment

Q.  I am the former wife of an Air Force serviceman.  After we divorced in 1984, I was awarded 40% of his military retirement pension.  Where can I find the amount of his monthly pension cheque?  I'm concerned because there hasn't be an increase in the money I'm receiving for over five years.  I sent my documentation to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service ("DFAS"), but to no avail.  Their advice was to contact the FOIA office, which I did about a month ago by email.  I still haven't received a response.

A.  You may want to consult the DFAS's FOIA website to make sure that you filed your request in accordance with the agency's procedures.  You should have at least received an acknowledgment of receipt by now.  Consider re-filing your request or contacting the DFAS FOIA staff.  Contact information for the FOIA public liaison officer is available here.   Be advised that some records pertaining to your ex-husband's pension may be protected by the Privacy Act and, therefore, may not be available for public disclosure.  If you still have trouble getting the information you need, you may want to consider seeking the advice of a lawyer who specializes in divorce law.

Court opinion issued February 14, 2017

Court Opinions (2015-2024)Allan BlutsteinComment

Nat'l Sec. Counselors v. DOJ (D.C. Cir.) -- finding that (1) FBI's policy of saving a maximum of 500 pages on a CD did not result in a violation of FOIA's mandate that agencies recover only "reasonable standard charges; (2) FBI failed to provide sufficient facts to allow court to determine whether FBI's $15-per-CD fee policy exceeds direct costs; and (3) affirming district court's denial of plaintiffs' request for a public interest fee waiver, because plaintiffs "failed to provide sufficiently specific and non-conclusory statements demonstrating its ability to disseminate the disclosures to a 'reasonably broad audience of persons interested in the subject.'" 

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.