FOIA News: Princeton sues U.S. Dep't of Education to protect admission records

Princeton Seeks to Block Disclosure of Admissions Process Documents

By Michael Booth, New Jersey Law Journal, Mar. 17, 2017

Princeton University has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the U.S. Department of Education from releasing information about the university’s undergraduate admissions process to an anti-affirmative action group.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the university in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday by former U.S. Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, who is now with Washington’s Jenner & Block.

Read more here.

FOIA News: A Sunshine Week Salute

A Sunshine Week salute to everyday FOIA heroes

JPat Brown, MuckRock, Mar. 17, 2017

Last week, we put out a call to nominate FOIA heroes - ordinary citizens whose public records requests have made an impact. The results are in, and we’ll close out Sunshine Week with the strongest case for the public’s right to know - the public themselves. Here’s what people said had to say about their hometown heroes.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Comparing Wait Times for FOIA Requests

Comparing Wait Times for FOIA Requests

Gary S. Becker, Security Debrief, Mar. 17, 2017

On January 18, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act “simple” request to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with a due date of February 16, 2017. It is now more than 30 days overdue. I specifically asked CBP to provide me disembarkation data by year for a number of cruise ports across the United States. The data are not readily available as evidenced by the fact that major associations representing the cruise lines do not have this data. As I began researching my request, I decided to examine (without any pre-conceived notion and using performance metrics) how CBP and several other agencies were doing in terms of responding to their FOIA requests. For this brief analysis, I selected Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). The three graphs below show the results.

Read more here.

FOIA News: 'Always appeal,' and more pro tips from a dozen FOIA experts

'Always appeal,’ and more pro tips from a dozen FOIA experts

By Jonathan Peters, Columbia Journalism Review, Mar. 17, 2017

IN JANUARY, CJR contributors published a selection of FOIA best practices, based on an analysis of more than 33,000 such requests. Among a number of conclusions, the analysis showed that individual practices (and the responses to them) can vary widely. I’d emphasize that using the Freedom of Information Act effectively is about more than preparing a request. Rather, it’s about the process: researching the agencies, following up with FOIA officers, appealing denials, and so on.

It’s critical, right now, that we make the best possible use of FOIA. President Trump has spent his first 50 days in office trolling the press, and a Knight study released this week shows that nearly 90 percent of freedom-of-information experts believe public access will get worse under Trump. One way for journalists to protect that access is to exercise the rights that guarantee it. January’s analysis was a step in that direction, gleaning lessons from successful requests. This effort, based on subject-matter expertise, complements it.

In observance of Sunshine Week, I asked a dozen FOIA experts for one piece of advice that would help journalists and others use the FOIA effectively. Here’s what they said:

Read more here.

FOIA News: Senate Judiciary Committee seeks info from OIP

Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a request to DOJ's Office of Information Policy seeking information on "the implementation of the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016," as well as OIP's "role in FOIA matters."   Among the seven questions raised, the Committee has asked for an update on DOJ's "Released to One, Release to All" policy and an explanation for its recent guidance regarding the definition of a "record."  

OIP's response to the Committee is due April 5, 2017.  

[Senator Grassley has issued a related news release that also describes similar requests made to OMB and OGIS]

Court opinion issued Mar. 15, 2017

Rozema v. HHS (2nd Cir.) -- summarily affirming district court's decision that FDA's records concerning quantity of menthol in cigarettes by brand is protected by Exemption 4.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

FOIA News: FY 2016 FOIA Data Available

Fiscal Year 2016 FOIA Data Available Now at FOIA.gov

Dep't of Justice, Office of Info. Pol'y, Mar. 16, 2017

OIP is pleased to announce that all 115 agencies subject to the FOIA have finalized their Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Annual FOIA Reports and that the Justice Department has uploaded all of the data from these reports onto FOIA.gov.

Each year, federal departments and agencies are required by law to submit a report to the Attorney General detailing various statistics regarding their agency’s FOIA activities, such as the numbers of requests processed and received, and the time taken to process them. The data from all of these Annual FOIA Reports is then uploaded onto FOIA.gov, the Justice Department’s government-wide FOIA resource, so that the public can easily view it and compare FOIA data by agency and over time.

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Mapper - Who Uses FOIA?

Who Uses FOIA? - An Analysis of 229,000 Requests to 85 Government Agencies

Max Galka, FOIA Mapper, Mar. 13, 2017

When the Freedom of Information Act was enacted in 1966, it was envisioned as a tool for journalists to facilitate government oversight and accountability. Although the FOIA is still generally thought of in this way, inextricably linked to the news media’s role as government watchdog, this view bears little resemblance to the reality of how FOIA is used today.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Mar. 13, 2017

Jett v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- concluding that: (1) FBI failed to prove that it performed adequate search for records within ELSUR indices; (2) plaintiff was entitled to limited discovery as to whether a search for records in CRS also constitutes search for records in ELSUR indices; and (3) FBI properly withheld certain records pursuant to Exemptions 7(C) and 7(E).

Comp. Enter. Inst. v. OSTP (D.D.C.) -- holding that agency was not required to search employee's non-official email account because employee complied with policy to forward all work-related email from such account to an official OSTP email account. 

Freedom of the Press Found. v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (N.D. Cal.) -- finding that: (1) FBI performed a reasonable search for records concerning issuance of national security letters ("NSLs") to obtain information about media; and (2) FBI properly withheld certain records pursuant to Exemptions 1, 3 (National Security Act of 1947). 5, and 7(E).  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

FOIA News: OGIS releases its annual report

OGIS Releases its Fiscal Year 2016 Report

OGIS Blog, Mar. 15, 2017

In his welcoming remarks at Monday’s  Sunshine Week celebration at the National Archives (video), the Archivist of the United States noted the substantial effort our agency has put towards improving open government over the last few years, and noted that there is – of course – a lot of work left to do. Our newly-released Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Annual Report shows that OGIS agrees with that sentiment.

Read more here.