FOIA News: After years-long FOIA battle, the Energy Department pays the Center for Public Integrity $5K in legal fees

After years-long FOIA battle, the Energy Department pays the Center for Public Integrity $5K in legal fees

Center for Public Integrity, June 4, 2018

The Center for Public Integrity, as a matter of policy, does not accept grants from the federal government. But the Center will accept compensation for the time and effort we put into fighting the government’s efforts to keep information from the public. And that’s what happened last month when the Center concluded a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy with an agreement that DOE pay the Center $5,000 in attorney fees.

The case began when the Center filed a lawsuit in August 2015 over a FOIA request for a report by DOE’s inspector general — a report on allegations against the Sandia Corporation, which then operated the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Center also requested a variety of other documents related to the IG’s investigation. In June 2015, DOE released a copy of the IG report to the Center but withheld the names of numerous federal officials and employees of Sandia and of its parent company, Lockheed Martin. The Center filed suit to challenge those redactions and because, nine months after the original FOIA request, DOE had turned over only one other document.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued June 1, 2018

Pub. Employees for Envtl. Responsibility v. EPA (D.D.C.) -- ruling that plaintiff's following two-part request was neither unreasonably described nor unduly burdensome:  (1) agency records that Administrator Pruitt relied upon to support his statements in his CNBC interview" on March 9, 2017, regarding impact of human activity on climate; and (2) "EPA documents, studies, reports, or guidance material that support the conclusion that human activity is not the largest factor driving global climate change."

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

FOIA News: District court rejects "Reverse FOIA" APA Lawsuit against GAO

Court Can't Hear Challenge To GAO Unredacted Bid Protest

Daniel Wilson, Law360, May 30, 2018

A Washington, D.C., federal judge tossed a challenge to the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s proposed release of an unredacted bid protest decision involving a military maintenance deal, ruling Wednesday that the court lacked jurisdiction because the GAO is not an “agency” under the relevant law.

The GAO, as a legislative branch agency, is not an “agency” for the purposes of the Administrative Procedure Act and therefore has sovereign immunity from lawsuits under the act, U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich ruled, dismissing Pond Constructors Inc.’s suit. Pond had argued the unredacted decision contained bid rating and pricing information it wanted to keep from public view. 

Read more here (subscription required).

FOIA News: DOJ Uses Exemption 6 to Withhold Legal Citations in Immigration Decisions

DOJ Redacts Immigration Docs In Response To FOIA Request

Kevin Penton, Law360, May 30, 2018

A New York-based immigration attorney is crying foul after the U.S. Department of Justice responded to his Freedom of Information Act request for copies of dozens of decisions involving an immigration judge by releasing heavily redacted versions of the documents.

Although the department's Executive Office for Immigration Review cited FOIA's Exemption 6, which is meant to protect personal privacy by barring the release of medical and personnel files and similar materials, the redacted information includes citations to published decisions by the Board of Immigration Appeals and by various federal circuit courts, according to documents posted online by the attorney, Bryan Johnson of Amoachi & Johnson PLLC.

"It's bizarre and outrageous," Johnson told Law360 on Wednesday. "It's so obvious that it's unlawful what they're doing."

Read more here (subscription required).

FOIA News: Recap of OGIS's Second Annual Open Meeting

Mark Your Calendars

OGIS Blog,  May 30, 2018 

During our Second Annual Open Meeting on May 18, 2018 our Director, Alina Semo, shared a preview of what you can expect from OGIS during the remainder of Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, including event dates, upcoming reports and other exciting news

We hope you will mark your calendars for several upcoming events we will be hosting in the William G. McGowan Theater:

•  July 19, 2018: Chief FOIA Officer Council Meeting
•  August 30, 2018: Immigration Records Forum with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and other Federal agencies which deal with immigration records
• September 6, 2018: First Meeting of the 2018-2020 Term of the FOIA Advisory Committee.

Read more here.

FOIA News: USCIS to launch online FOIA system

USCIS to Implement Online Processing of FOIA Requests

New System Allows Users to Submit and Receive FOIA Requests Digitally

USCIS Press Release, May 30, 2018

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced the launch of our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Immigration Records SysTem (FIRST), which will eventually allow users to submit, manage, and receive FOIA requests entirely online. Before this change, USCIS only accepted FOIA requests by mail, fax, and email, and requesters typically received their documents on a compact disc by mail.

USCIS is commencing FIRST’s digital delivery of services in phases. Initially, requesters who have an immigration court date pending and file a request for documents can create an account within myUSCIS to receive documents digitally, eliminating the time and expense associated with receiving requests by mail.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Enviro group seeks discovery in FOIA case, including Pruitt deposition

Green Group Wants To Depose Pruitt in FOIA Suit Over Emails

Christine Powell, Law360, May 29, 2018

The Center for Biological Diversity announced Monday that it's seeking to depose U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt as part of a lawsuit it brought in D.C. federal court in an effort to force the release of records about his schedule, emails and other communications.

The environmental group said in a news release that it has filed a motion for discovery in which it asks to depose Pruitt about whether he is preserving his emails properly and whether the EPA is searching all of his email accounts in response to public records requests.

Read more here (subscription required).

FOIA News: 9th Cir. Revives FOIA Suit for Bonneville Power Administration Records

[NB: FOIA Advisor previously reported the issuance of the opinion discussed in this article earlier this week.]

9th Circ. Revives FOIA Suit For Federal Power Agency Docs

Keith Goldberg, Law360, May 25, 2018

The Ninth Circuit on Friday revived an environmental group's Freedom of Information Act suit seeking information from the Bonneville Power Administration, reversing a lower court's conclusion that the group lacked standing because it didn't clearly identify itself as the one filing the original FOIA request.

A Washington federal judge in March 2016 dismissed the suit lodged by the group A Better Way for BPA against the BPA — a U.S. Department of Energy power marketing administration that ships hydropower from federally owned dams to utilities and rural electric cooperatives in the Northwest — over its delay in turning over documents relating to a since-abandoned transmission project.

But a Ninth Circuit panel disagreed with U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton's conclusion that the group lacked standing to bring the suit because the FOIA request was filled out by group member Cheryl Brantley in an individual capacity, and she didn't adequately indicate that it was the group making the request.

Read more here (subscription required).

FOIA News: State Dep't ends "FOIA Surge," reports TPM

State Dept. Quietly Ends Controversial ‘FOIA Surge,’ But Questions Remain

By Alice Ollstein, TPM, May 29, 2018

The State Department has quietly ended the controversial “FOIA surge” launched last October under the since-fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Capitol Hill and State Department sources tell TPM.

The effort involved pulling hundreds of people from offices across the agency — including former ambassadors, former high-level leaders of bureaus and former National Security Council staff — and reassigning them largely clerical work processing Freedom of Information Act requests.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued May 25, 2018

A Better Way for BPA v. U.S. Dep't of Energy (9th Cir.) -- reversing district court's decision that plaintiff did not have standing to file lawsuit because of "the submitted form’s unambiguous reference to A Better Way, confirming correspondence, and common sense." 

Physicians Comm. for Responsible Med. v. USDA (D.D.C.) -- concluding that requested records possessed by National Cattle Beef Association were not created, obtained, or controlled by agency and, thus, were not "agency records." 

Animal Legal Def. Fund v. USDA (N.D. Cal.) -- holding that expedited FOIA processing standard for "imminent threat to life or safety of an individual" excludes threats to animals -- in this case, a Siberian-Bengal tiger named "Tony."

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.