FOIA News: Government FOIA jobs available

• Manager, Freedom of Information Act, Bd. of Governors Fed. Reserve Sys., Washington D.C.  
• FOIA Program Manager, Nat'l Archives & Records Admin., College Park, MD 
• Attorney-Advisor, Envtl. Prot. Agency, Washington, D.C.
• Gov't Information Specialist, Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n, Dallas, TX
• Gov't Information Specialist, Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n, Memphis, TN
• Gov't Information Specialist, Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n, Saint Louis County, MO
• Gov't Information Specialist, Dep't of the Air Force, Peterson AFB, CO

Court opinion issued July 12, 2018

Brown v. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) emails sent by State Department to Hillary Clinton's private attorney were not considered in public domain; and (2) State Department properly withheld records pursuant to deliberative process, attorney work-product, and attorney-client privileges.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Q&A: See me, Feel me

Q.  It has been 8 business days since we made a FOIA request to the DOJ. We have not received an acknowledgement letter or tracking number yet. DOJ's website states DOJ "ordinarily will send you a letter acknowledging the request ..."  How common is it for them not to send an acknowledgement letter?

A.  The statute requires agencies to assign a tracking number after 10 days, see 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(7)(A), and most agencies will acknowledge a request within a few weeks of receipt.  If you are concerned about whether your request was received, or simply are eager to get a tracking number, you might wish to contact the agency's FOIA Public Liaison.

FOIA News: Former EPA aide discusses agency's FOIA operations

The Latest: Scrutiny of 'politically charged' FOIA requests

By Ellen Knickmeyer,  Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 13, 2018

WASHINGTON — The Latest on the Environmental Protection Agency's handling of public records requests (all times local):

10:35 a.m.

Environmental Protection Agency Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson is defending his agency's handling of records requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

Jackson said in a phone interview Friday his agency has worked its way through a 10-year backlog of records requests left from the Obama administration. He says the agency is now processing current records requests as quickly as it can.

Read more here.

FOIA News: OGIS releases agenda for Chief FOIA Officer Council meeting

The Office of Government Information Services has published the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the Chief FOIA Officers Council on July 19, 2018, at 10 a.m.   The meeting is open to the public.  Register here to attend in person.  A livestream is available here. 

Court opinions issued July 10-11, 2018

July 11, 2018

Kuntz v. U.S Dep't of Justice (D. N.D.) -- in first published FOIA opinion from North Dakota district in more than 14 years, ruling that FBI's full disclosure of memorandum with North Dakota Attorney General rendered case moot. 

July 10, 2018

Ctr. for Investigative Reporting v. DOJ (N.D. Cal.) -- finding that: (1) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives failed to perform reasonable search for certain firearms tracing records; (2) ATF was not required to produce new documents to satisfy plaintiff's request; and (3) ATF properly withheld non-statistical aggregate data from trace database pursuant to Exemption 3.  

Elliott v. USDA (D. Md.) -- dismissing case after determining that government never received plaintiff-inmate's FOIA request concerning government's jurisdiction over certain property. 

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

FOIA News: ICYMI, lawsuit seeks access to Kavanaugh docs

Trump Administration Sued By Watchdog Group For Failing To Produce Thousands Of Brett Kavanaugh Documents

Watchdog group Fix the Court alleges the Trump administration is withholding thousands of Kavanaugh documents against federal statutes.

By Mohit Priyadarshi, Inquisitr, July 12, 2018

As Donald Trump makes his first ever official visit to the UK as president, his administration is being sued by a watchdog group for failing to produce thousands of documents about recently announced Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Kavanaugh's federal FOIA cases

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has participated in twenty-four federal Freedom of Information Act cases during his twelve years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.   

Morley v. CIA, No. 17-5114 (D.C. Cir. 2018)

Reporters Comm. for Freedom Press v. FBI, 877 F.3d 399 (D.C. Cir. 2017) 

Envtl. Integrity Project v. EPA, 864 F.3d 648 (D.C. Cir. 2017)

Sack v. DOD, 823 F.3d 687 (D.C. Cir. 2016)

Abtew v. DHS, 808 F.3d 895 (D.C. Cir. 2015)

Chiquita Brands Int'l. v. SEC, 805 F.3d 289 (D.C. Cir. 2015)

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. DOJ, 750 F.3d 927 (D.C. Cir. 2014)

Cause of Action v. NARA, 753 F.3d 210 (D.C. Cir. 2014)

Nat'l Sec. Archive v. CIA, 752 F.3d 460 (D.C. Cir. 2014)

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. DOJ (D.C. Cir. 2014)

Pub. Emps. for Envtl. Responsibility v. U.S. Section, Int'l Boundary, 740 F.3d 195 (D.C. Cir. 2014)

Morley v. CIA, 719 F.3d 689 (D.C. Cir. 2013)

Ctr. for Int'l Envtl. Law v. USTR, 718 F.3d 899 (D.C. Cir. 2013)

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. FEC, 711 F.3d 180 (D.C. Cir. 2013)

Hodge v. FBI, 703 F.3d 575 (D.C. Cir. 2013)

Judicial Watch v. SSA, 701 F.3d 379 (D.C. Cir. 2012)

Elec. Privacy Info. Ctr. v. NSA, 678 F.3d 926 (D.C. Cir. 2012)

Blackwell v. FBI, 646 F.3d 37 (D.C. Cir. 2011)

Roth v. DOJ, 642 F.3d 1161 (D.C. Cir. 2011)

Brayton v. USTR, 641 F.3d 521 (D.C. Cir. 2011)

Elliott v. USDA, 596 F.3d 842 (D.C. Cir. 2010)

Larson v. Dep't of State, 565 F.3d 857 (D.C. Cir. 2009)

Juarez v. DOJ, 518 F.3d 54 (D.C. Cir. 2008)

Baker & Hostetler v. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 473 F.3d 312 (D.C. Cir. 2006)

FOIA News: Law360 FOIA Roundup

Law360 (subscription required) posted three separate FOIA stories tonight. Excerpts and links below:

ICE, CBP Hit With FOIA Suit Over Immigrant Arrest Records

By Suzanne Monyak, Law360, July 10, 2018

The American Immigration Council asked a D.C. federal court Monday to force U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hand over their immigration enforcement records, claiming the agencies illegally failed to respond to the nonprofit’s Freedom of Information Act request.

The immigrant advocacy group said CBP and ICE haven't conducted an adequate search of their records in response to the council’s October request for information on the agencies’ apprehension and removal practices.

Read more here (subscription).

DOJ Must Give Harvard FOIA Docs On For-Profit College

By Matthew Santoni, Law360, July 10, 2018

A Pennsylvania federal judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice must turn over some of the documents a Harvard Law School legal clinic had sought from a whistleblower lawsuit over a struggling Pittsburgh-based for-profit college provider’s student recruitment and loan policies.

U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer granted both the DOJ and the Harvard Project on Predatory Student Lending partial summary judgment in a dispute over the clinic's Freedom of Information Act request for a trove of materials the DOJ received through a False Claims Act case...

Read more here (subscription).

IRS Denies Dragging Its Feet In Exxon Mobil FOIA Case

By Natalie Olivo, Law360, July 10, 2018

The Internal Revenue Service has hit back against Exxon Mobil’s Freedom of Information Act suit tied to the oil giant’s tax refund bid, recently telling a Texas federal court the company had no basis to accuse the agency of dragging its feet in releasing documents.

Exxon Mobil Corp. had asked the court to set a Nov. 30 deadline for the IRS to release additional records under the oil giant’s FOIA request...

Read more here (subscription).

Court opinion issued July 9, 2018

Morley v. CIA (D.C. Cir.) -- In a 2-1 decision, the D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling that plaintiff was not entitled to attorney's fees in connection with a 15-year-old case involving JFK assassination records.  The majority -- which included U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh -- found that the CIA did not act unreasonably by referring plaintiff to the National Archives and Records Administration, which possessed the requested records.  The dissenting judge asserted that the majority gave the lower court too much deference, misapplied the relevant test for determining fee awards, and permitted the CIA to evade its FOIA responsibilities. 

Project on Predatory Lending of the Legal Servs. v. DOJ (W.D. Pa.) -- ruling that: (1) certain information contained on hard drive and obtained by DOJ during qui tam False Claims Act action did not qualify as "agency record" because DOJ never reviewed or relied upon it; (2) even if documents on hard drive were agency records, DOJ demonstrated that processing approximately 140 million pages would be unduly burdensome; (3) agency performed adequate search, but improperly relied on attorney-client privilege to withhold certain records; and (4) various protective orders entered in False Claims litigation did not prohibit DOJ from releasing records at issue.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here.