Judicial Watch v. DOD (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming district court’s decision that the presidential communications privilege protected in full five memoranda that “memorialized advice to the President and his top national security advisers when the President was considering whether to order a military strike on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.”
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
The Department of the Interior has extended the public comment period for its proposed regulations from January 28, 2019, to January 29, 2019, as set forth in a notice scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on January 28, 2019. The reason for the one-day extension, according to the Department, is a technical glitch that occured in mid-January on the website regulations.gov .
Sandoval v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- on government’s second renewed motion for summary judgment, ruling that DOJ, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for Central Illinois performed adequate searches for records pertaining to plaintiff-inmate.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
INTERIOR
Michael Doyle, E&E News, Jan. 25, 2019
The newly empowered Democratic chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee is urging the Interior Department to slow down and open up more about controversial proposals that critics fear could effectively curtail the Freedom of Information Act.
Read more here (free trial subscription available).
Brennan Ctr. for Justice v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- reducing plaintiff’s requested fee award from $14,765 to $10,765 because time that plaintiff spent reviewing responsive records was not exclusively for purposes of litigation strategy, and because plaintiff’s “fee-on-fee” charges were unreasonably high.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Dillon v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) FBI failed to sufficiently address why it did not produced three known emails pertaining to investigation of Bruce Ivins, who killed himself before being indicted for anthrax attacks in 2001; and (2) in camera review was warranted for requested excerpts of FBI’s interim 2006 case report, which agency claimed was entirely exempt pursuant to deliberative process privilege.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Rocky Mountain Wild v. U.S. Bureau of Land Mgmt. (D. Colo., 2019) -- ruling that: (1) plaintiff’s claim concerning agency’s untimely response became moot once agency fully responded; (2) plaintiff’s claim seeking referral to Special Counsel was an invalid cause of action; and (3) plaintiff failed to establish that agency has pattern-or-practice claim of FOIA violations.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Judge orders Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes to answer written Benghazi questions in Clinton email lawsuit
By Samuel Chamberlain, Fox News, Jan. 15, 2019
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that former national security adviser Susan Rice and former deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes must answer written questions about the State Department's response to the deadly 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya, as part of an ongoing legal battle over whether Hillary Clinton sought to deliberately evade public record laws by using a private email server while secretary of state.
Read more here.
Upcoming Supreme Court case could hand broadened FOIA censorship powers to corporations
By Michael Morisy, MuckRock, Jan. 15, 2019
Does your right to know which companies are receiving your tax dollars outweigh those companies’ rights to competitive secrets?
That’s the question at stake in an upcoming Supreme Court case set to be heard in April, and the result could either cement the public’s right to know or severely restrict the ability to track the flow of tax dollars into private companies.
“This could be a monumental FOIA case. It could be very good, or this could be disaster for FOIA, depending on what happens here,” said Jonathan Ellis, an investigative reporter with the Argus Leader.
Read more here.
Another shutdown victim: FOIA rules debate
Michael Doyle, E&E News, Jan. 15, 2019
The partial government shutdown has muted public debate over an Interior Department proposal that would effectively impose new limits on the Freedom of Information Act.
Halfway into a public review period scheduled to end Jan. 28, Interior has logged at least 1,219 comments. That's been enough to periodically vault the department's FOIA proposals into the ranks of "trending" on the federal government's Regulations.gov website.
Read more here.