Harrison v. EOUSA (S.D. Cal.) -- concluding that agency performed adequate search for records concerning activities of Assistant United States Attorney with respect to plaintiff, a pro se inmate.
Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.
Trucept v. IRS (S.D. Cal.) -- ruling that: (1) IRS failed to demonstrate that it performed reasonable search for responsive records; (2) IRS properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 5, 7(A), and 7(D); (3) IRS failed to address whether "Risk Score" withheld under Exemption 7(E) was technique unknown to public; and (4) judgment would be reserved as to Exemptions 3, 6, and 7(C) until record was further developed.
Frost v. Wilkinson (N.D. Cal.) -- dismissing complaint because plaintiff improperly named an employee of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys as the defendant instead of the agency; stating in dicta that agency appeared to have conducted adequate search for records, which was sole issue in dispute.
Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.
Cause of Action Institute, June 6, 2017
Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) today filed a lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) for Google Chat or Hangouts communications from the New England Fishery Management Council’s (“NEFMC”) April 2017 meeting. The suit also seeks internal guidance on retention of Google Chat records on the agency’s internal messaging platform. NOAA failed to respond to two Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests submitted in May for these records.
The records sought by CoA Institute include guidance from NOAA’s Office of General Counsel for the retention of instant messages through the “Google Chat” or “Google Hangouts” feature of NOAA’s internal Unified Messaging System. According to a March 2012 NOAA handbook, employees were instructed that these messages “will be considered ‘off the record’ and will not be recorded in anyway.”
Read more here.
The Securities and Exchange Commission's guide to better FOIA appeals
Beryl Lipton, MuckRock, July 5, 2017
Way back in March, we awarded the title of FOIA March Madness Champion to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for their swift response to this year’s tournament. This season’s challenge was, in part, to provide us with the letters FOIA appealers had submitted to win their documents, even after they’d been handed a rejection, redaction, or delay.
In the Independence Day spirit of civic engagement and disobedience, we took a look through some of the appeals to the SEC and pulled examples of successful pushback. Need a guide to crafting your own response to some common denials from the SEC or other agencies holding back your documents? Here’s your quick how-to in the words of those winning requesters themselves.
Read more here.
CIA came up with 126 reasons to deny your FOIA request
Emma Best, MuckRock, July 6, 2017
Driven by its never-ending desire to have greater control of what information about its activities are made public, CIA drafted a SECRET report listing 126 things that the Agency could use to argue something was subject to the “sources and methods” protections. Intended to address difficulties censoring Victor Marchetti’s book on the Agency, the list was designed to be both “broad enough and specific enough” to include as much as possible. While the list has been used to help justify a number of FOIA withholdings, the list itself has been withheld … to protect the Agency’s intelligence sources and methods.
Read more here.
Fifty years after the Freedom of Information Act, government transparency is again on the wane.
By Nicole Hemmer, U.S. News & World Report, July 5, 2017
Fifty years ago today, Washington witnessed a revolution. The Freedom of Information Act went into effect, establishing Americans' right to know.
FOIA was a breathtaking accomplishment, the end result of a 12-year effort by John Moss, a Democratic congressman from California. The bill established that any citizen -- anyone, not just officeholders or journalists or well-connected insiders -- could ask the government for information, and the government had to respond. Every citizen had a right to know what the government was up to.
Read more here.
Register to Attend the July 20th FOIA Advisory Committee Meeting
Nat'l Archives & Records Admin., The FOIA Ombudsman, July 5, 2017
The Federal FOIA Advisory Committee will reconvene on Thursday, July 20th at 10:00 am in the William G. McGowan Theater to continue its work to develop consensus solutions to some of the greatest challenges to FOIA administration and processes. If you have comments to share with the Committee, or would like to join the live audience, please register today.
Read more here.
By Christine Powell, Law360, June 30, 2017
The conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch filed suit in D.C. federal court Thursday in pursuit of records of communications between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and environmental groups about Dakota Access LLC’s controversial $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile crude oil pipeline.
Judicial Watch targeted the U.S. Department of Defense, which is the Corps’ parent agency, alleging in a four-page complaint that it flouted the Freedom of Information Act by dragging its feet in responding to the group’s early May request for the records.
Read more here (subscription).
FOIA Turns 51: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?
Liz Hempowicz, Project on Gov't Oversight, July 4, 2017
Happy birthday to the Freedom of Information Act! Today the Act quietly turns 51, compared to last year’s celebration at the signing of the FOIA Improvement Act by then-President Obama. The FOIA Improvement Act included some great updates to the landmark access-to-information law, like improved requirements for agencies to proactively post documents online and a new standard of transparency.
Read more here.
Polk v. FBI (9th Cir.) (unpublished opinion) -- summarily affirming district court's decision that agency conducted reasonable search and that plaintiff was not entitled to costs.
Rosiere v. United States (9th Cir.) (unpublished opinion) -- summarily affirming district court's decision to dismiss case for improper venue.
Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.