Siegelman v. DOJ (N.D. Ala.) -- ruling that plaintiff was eligible and entitled to a “modest award of fees and costs,” not $72,820 as requested, after the Office of Professional Responsibility released 37 pages pertaining to the prosecution of plaintiff’s father, Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Everyone is asking for the Mueller report, and you can too
By Joshua Eaton, ThinkProgress, Apr. 9, 2019
The Justice Department has received 198 public records requests related to the Mueller probe since the investigation ended on March 22, the department said in a court filing Friday. That’s nearly half of the 415 records requests related to the Mueller probe that the Justice Department was processing as of March 29.
Requests for records from the special counsel’s office continue to pile up, according to Vanessa Brinkmann, senior counsel in the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy.
“This number continues to grow each day,” Brinkmann said in the court filing.
Read more here.
Assassination Archives & Research Ctr. v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- adopting magistrate’s recommendation to deny plaintiff’s request for nearly $104,000 in attorney’s fees and costs in connection with request for assassination records concerning Adolf Hitler and Fidel Castro; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that court should abandon D.C. Circuit’s four-factor entitlement test and concluding that CIA acted reasonably in response to plaintiff’s request.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Gizmodo Media Grp. v. DOJ (S.D.N.Y.) -- ruling that DOJ’s National Security Division properly relied on Exemption 1 in refusing to confirm or deny existence of records pertaining to alleged wiretaps of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, notwithstanding President Trump’s statements on the subject.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Hill Leaders Seek Review of FOIA Compliance
FEDweek, Apr. 3, 2019
A bipartisan group of House and Senate leaders on government oversight issues has asked the GAO to examine federal agency compliance with 2016 changes to the Freedom of Information Act.
Some agencies are not fully implementing the 2016 law and continue to burden requesters with unlawful delays and denials,” their request said. Among other provisions, that law created a presumption of openness, allowing agencies to withhold records only when there is foreseeable harm to an interest protected by an exemption or a legal requirement preventing their release.
Read more here.
Hohman v. IRS (6th Cir.) (unpublished)-- concluding that appellant offered no compelling reason for failing to appeal magistrate judge’s report and recommendation to district court, and thus affirming district court’s decision that government properly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) to withhold records from Treasury Inspector General of Tax Administration concerning agency misconduct.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Elgabrowny v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1)(a) FBI performed reasonable search for handwritten notes pertaining to interview of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef; (b) Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys failed to sufficiently describe its search for records pertaining to plaintiff’s criminal case; (c) CIA conducted adequate search in response to plaintiff’s request for a court-filed exhibit, but failed to even respond to plaintiff’s second request; and (2) CIA properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 3 in conjunction with National Security Act of 1974.
Matthews v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) FBI performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff’s prosecution for wire and bank fraud; (2) agency properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 3 (in conjunction with Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e); Exemption 5 (deliberative process, attorney work-product, and attorney-client privileges), and Exemptions 6, 7(C), 7(D), and 7(E), except for agency’s use of Exemption 6 to withhold Federal Tort Claims Act file and its use of Exemption 7(D) regarding certain informants; and (3) plea agreement that prohibited plaintiff from requesting FBI’s investigatory files was unenforceable because it would serve no “legitimate criminal justice interest.”
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
The Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy has posted additional agency FOIA reports for fiscal year 2018. See OIP’s web page here. Cabinet agencies whose reports are still outstanding include Commerce, HHS, State, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs.
Julian Castro urges Congress to subject itself to the Freedom of Information Act
By Naomi Lim, Washington Examiner, Apr. 1, 2019
Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Julian Castro on Monday called on Congress not to shield itself from large swathes of the Freedom of Information Act.
Castro, the former Obama administration housing secretary and mayor of San Antonio, Texas, made the comments at the We the People Membership Summit, an event held in Washington, D.C., for liberal activists to discuss electoral and economic reforms with eight White House contenders.
"We have to make Congress subject to the Freedom of Information Act,” he said. “We need to shine a light on what happens in Congress."
Read more here.
Posted here. Goes into effect May 1, 2019.