FOIA News: Thanks to FOIA, you can (kinda) play the CIA’s collectible card game

Thanks to FOIA, you can (kinda) play the CIA’s collectible card game

By JPat Brown, MuckRock, Dec. 6, 2017

Agency’s “Collection Deck” game is ready for you to print out and play - it’s just that some of the cards are a matter of national security

Earlier this year, the Central Intelligence Agency hosted a panel at South by Southwest about the agency’s use of board games as a training exercise. Intrigued, MuckRock’s Mitchell Kotler filed a FOIA for the materials used to play Collection Deck, a collectible card game shown in the presentation.

Read more here (images included).

Court opinions issued Dec. 4, 2017

Powell v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) several of plaintiff's FOIA requests were moot because agency released all responsive records; and (2) agency demonstrated that it performed reasonable search by submitting declaration containing "three essential statements that courts require: the search terms used, the database or locations searched, and an averment that all locations likely to contain responsive records were searched."  

Rojas v. FAA (D. Ariz.) -- in case involving multiple requests pertaining to agency's policy change for hiring Air Traffic Control Specialists, finding that: (1) agency properly refused to confirm or deny existence of complaints against named individual; and (2) agency improperly relied on privacy exemptions to redact email subject lines, case numbers, attachment files, and various other records; (3) agency failed to justify its use of Exemption 7(A).    

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

FOIA News: Op-ed urges feds to finalize "release-to-one, release-to-all" policy

By Tyler Arnold, Opinion Contributor, The Hill, Dec. 4, 2017

The Trump administration recently announced its plan to accelerate the processing of a 13,000 records-request backlog that has piled up over the past decade at the U.S. State Department. This is a good start, but the president has an even greater opportunity to show his administration’s commitment to transparency: finalizing the “Release to One, Release to all” rule for the Freedom of Information Act.

The Freedom of Information Act, or “FOIA,” signed into law a half century ago, permits Americans to petition any federal agency for records. The purpose of the FOIA was to help hold those agencies accountable by allowing the public to know what their government was up to. The Release to One, Release to All policy, initially proposed under the Obama administration, would expand access to information by making records produced in response to individual FOIA requests publicly available to everyone through agency websites.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Nov. 30 & Dec. 1, 2017

Dec. 1, 2017

Judicial Watch v. Nat'l Archives & Records Admin. (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming district court's decision that agency properly relied on Exemption 7(C) to withhold copies of any indictments against Hillary Clinton arising out of Independent Counsel's investigation.

Keeping Gov't Beholden v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff's request for expedited review under Federal Courts Civil Priorities Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1657, because plaintiff failed to show "manifest good cause." 

Nov. 30, 2017

Ecological Rights Found. v. Fed. Emergency Mgmt. Agency (N.D. Cal.) -- determining that: (1) agency properly used the date it began to search for documents as cut-off date; (2) agency failed to demonstrate propriety of its withholdings pursuant to deliberative process and attorney work-product privileges; notably, the court cited agency's statutory obligation to show reasonably foreseeable harm; (3) Exemption 6 did not protect names of individuals or contact information appearing in records concerning National Flood Insurance Program; and (4) plaintiff was entitled to declaratory relief "because FEMA has repeatedly failed to comply with its express statutory requirements."

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued Nov. 29, 2017

O'Connor v. Office of Foreign Assets Control (E.D. Pa.) -- concluding that agency failed to adequately search for records concerning its procedures for granting licenses to conduct business in Cuba. 

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinion issued Nov. 28, 2017

Conley v. FBI (3rd Cir.) -- (1) affirming district court's decision that plaintiff was not entitled to fee waiver regarding records concerning himself; (2) affirming district court's decision that plaintiff failed to file a timely administrative appeal from one of FBI's responses; and (3) vacating and remanding district court's decision that FBI properly invoked Exemption 7(E) to withhold portion of law enforcement manual.  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

FOIA News: DOJ-OIP Releases Guidance for Agency FOIA Websites

OIP Publishes New Guidance on FOIA Websites

Dep't of Justice, Office of Info. Pol'y, Nov. 30, 2017

Today, OIP published updated guidance for agency FOIA websites. This new guidance, Agency FOIA Websites 2.0, encourages agencies to review their FOIA websites to ensure they contain essential resources, and are informative and user-friendly. While the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996 required agencies to use electronic information technology to enhance the public availability of their FOIA “reading room” records, agencies now use their websites as a primary way to communicate with the public.

Since OIP issued its first guidance for FOIA websites nearly ten years ago, agency websites have evolved as technical capabilities have improved over time, allowing agencies to post more information online. Additionally, diverse website styles have led to differences in how agencies display similar information about their FOIA administration. The FOIA Websites 2.0 guidance establishes standard minimum requirements for FOIA websites, while recognizing that agencies may organize and style their websites in the way that best serves their mission and community of users. The guidance encourages agencies to include a clear link to their FOIA website on the agency’s main homepage and to ensure their FOIA websites contain key information and resources.

Read more here.

Read the new guidance, "Agency FOIA Websites 2.0," here.

FOIA News: OGIS releases 2018 calendar

OGIS Publishes Fiscal Year 2018 Activities Calendar

OGIS Blog, Nov. 30, 2017

Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 is shaping up to be another busy year at OGIS!

This week we are happy to announce the release of our FY 2018 Activities Calendar. The calendar shows our tentative schedule for upcoming agency compliance and issue assessments and our popular Dispute Resolution Skills for FOIA Professionals training sessions. The calendar also shows the dates for many of our events, including the remaining meetings of the 2016-2018 term of the FOIA Advisory Committee, our Sunshine Week event, and OGIS’s Second Annual Open Meeting.

If you don’t have your 2018 calendar yet, or just like seeing reminders of OGIS’s activities and events, the best way to keep up with our work is to follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our blog posts. We also invite you to share any feedback or suggest any issues for OGIS to assess in the comments section!

FOIA News: Fraudster can't have prosecution records, court rules

Ex-Comverse GC Loses FOIA Bid Tied To 'Backdating' Scam

By Dunstan Prial, Law360, Nov. 29, 2017

A New York federal judge dismissed a Freedom of Information Act suit Tuesday, brought by the former general counsel of Comverse Technology Inc. who was seeking documents related to his 2006 guilty plea in a stock options “backdating” scheme, saying his claims the government may have improperly pursued his case didn't outweigh witnesses' privacy.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein found in a 25-page summary judgment that William F. Sorin had not shown that releasing the documents was in the public interest and said the U.S. Department of Justice was correct in withholding the documents Sorin was seeking in his FOIA suit.

Read more here (subscription required).

FOIA News: In like Flynn? DIA says no.

Citing probes, military agency bars access to Flynn records

Economic Times, Nov. 29, 2017

The Defense Intelligence Agency is refusing to publicly release a wide array of documents related to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, saying that turning them over could interfere with ongoing congressional and federal investigations.

Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former DIA director, is currently under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees. They are scrutinizing his private consulting work for a Turkish businessman as well as his activities related to Russia during President Donald Trump's campaign and the early days of the Trump administration. The Defense Department's inspector general also is investigating Flynn's receipt of foreign payments as a retired military officer.

In a series of letters dated Nov. 15, the DIA denied several Freedom of Information Act requests filed over the past year by The Associated Press seeking information about Flynn's tenure at the DIA from 2012 to 2014.

Read more here.