FOIA News: More on Lamberth's lambasting of State and Justice departments

Good Faith or Bad?

Susan McGuire Smith, FedSmith, Dec. 10, 2018

The court indicated once discovery ends, Judge Lamberth will then see if [the court] “can rule out egregious government misconduct…” (Opinion p. 9)

This scathing opinion starts by quoting President Obama’s standard for his new administration’s compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) issued on his first day as President. In the new President’s policy, he used words like “openness prevails…act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation…agencies are servants of the public…presumption in favor of disclosure…” etc. (Opinion p. 1)

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Dec. 7, 2018

Democracy Forward Found. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- granting Office of Information Policy’s request for a stay until January 13, 2019 to process records from the Office of Legal Policy concerning appellate court nominees. In arriving at its decision, the court considered that OIP has seen a significant spike in requests over the past two years and that it has been sufficiently diligent in processing requests.

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

FOIA News: Court hammers gov't over Clinton emails; orders discovery to look into egregious conduct

Judge orders Justice, State departments to reopen narrow inquiry into handling of Clinton email records lawsuit

By Spencer S. Hsu, Wash. Post, Dec. 6, 2018

A U.S. judge ordered the Justice and State departments Thursday to reopen an inquiry into whether Hillary Clinton used a private email server while secretary of state to deliberately evade public records laws and to answer whether the agencies acted in bad faith by not telling a court for months that they had asked in mid-2014 for missing emails to be returned.

Read more here.

Copy of decision appears in “Court opinions”

Court opinions issued Dec. 6, 2018

Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- in a blistering opinion against the government, ordering the parties “to meet and confer to plan discovery into whether [Hillary] Clinton used a private email to stymie FOIA, whether State’s attempts to settle [this] case in late 2014 and 2015 amounted to bad faith, and whether State’s subsequent searches have been adequate.”

Sorin v. DOJ (2nd Cir.) (summary order) -- affirming district court’s decision that government properly withheld records pertaining to plaintiff’s criminal prosecution pursuant to Exemption 3, in conjunction with Federal Rule of Criminal of Criminal Procedure 6(e); Exemption 5 (attorney work-product privilege); and Exemption 7(C).

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

FOIA News: Top 10 agencies sued under FOIA in 2018

Department of Ed Joins Top-10 Rank of FOIA Lawsuits

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal, Dec. 6, 2018

A Freedom of Information Act project to measure the number of FOIA lawsuits filed against federal agencies has added the Department of Education to the top-10 list for the first time. The FOIA Project maintains information on federally related FOIA requests, decisions, appeals and lawsuits.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Dec. 4, 2018

Am. Ctr. for Law & Justice v. U.S. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- ruling that agency properly relied on Exemption 1 to withhold parts of five-page report concerning activities of the “United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.”

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

FOIA News: D.C. hears arguments about OLC memos

DC Circ. Asks Why Gov't Legal Opinions Are FOIA-Exempt

By Christopher Cole, Law 360, Dec. 4, 2018

The U.S. Justice Department faced pointed questions from D.C. Circuit judges Tuesday about its rationale for keeping legal advice to federal agencies from public view.

Read more here (free trial subscription available).

FOIA News: EPA hit with another lawsuit

Green groups sue EPA for records of Wheeler meetings

By Miranda Green, The Hill, Dec. 4, 2018

Two environmental groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for records of any meetings that new Administrator Andrew Wheeler may have held with his former employer and several other energy groups. 

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Friends of the Earth brought the lawsuit on Tuesday, arguing the EPA should release records of any meetings that Wheeler may have had with the communications and lobbying firm Faegre Baker Daniels.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Nov. 29, 2018

Planned Parenthood v. Azar (W.D. Wash.) -- in “reverse-FOIA” case, ruling that plaintiff was entitled to preliminary injunction protecting its grant application because agency’s decision to release it appeared to be arbitrary and capricious and disclosure would likely cause irreparable harm.

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

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee meeting

The Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee held its second meeting of the 2018-2020 term yesterday. The three-hour event can be viewed in its entirety here. The agenda included a discussion about records management from representatives of the Inspector General community.