FOIA News: FOIA stats for FY 2018 still unavailable

On March 14, 2019, the Director of the Office of Information Policy advised the House Committee on Oversight and Reform that the government’s 2018 FOIA metrics would be available in approximately one month. To date, the 2018 annual reports of three dozen agencies have yet to be posted on Office of Information Policy’s website, which was last updated April 1, 2019.

FOIA News: Redactions in Mueller report may be reviewed in FOIA case

Judge in FOIA case says he may want to review DOJ redactions of Mueller report after release

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Apr. 16, 2019

Federal District Judge Reggie Walton expressed uncertainty about the redactions Attorney General William Barr is making to special counsel Robert Mueller's report and suggested he may want to review the Justice Department's redactions for himself once versions of it are made public.

"Obviously there is a real concern as to whether there is full transparency," Walton said at a Tuesday court hearing in Washington about a request from BuzzFeed News to have the Justice Department release the report quickly under the Freedom of Information Act. "The attorney general has created an environment that has caused a significant part of the American public to be concerned" about the redactions.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Commission of Fine Arts proposes revisions to FOIA regulations

The Commission of Fine Arts published an interim final rule, along with a request for public comments, concerning revised FOIA regulations in today’s issue of the Federal Register. The CFA last updated its FOIA regulations in 1986. The proposed revisions, which are effective June 1, 2019, incorporate all FOIA-related amendments that have passed over the past thirty years. Public comments are due by May 20, 2019.

Court opinion issued Apr. 15, 2019

Rose v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- dismissing plaintiff’s lawsuit because Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive had no record of receiving of plaintiff’s request, which was addressed to a facility that moved ten years ago.

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

FOIA News: Argument preview for Exemption 4 SCOTUS case

Argument preview: Justices to consider meaning of “confidential” in Freedom of Information Act

By Mark Fenster, SCOTUSblog, Apr. 15, 2019

The U.S. Department of Agriculture issues specialized debit cards to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits recipients. Although the data that USDA gathers under SNAP are not quite so rich and revealing as those collected by private credit- and debit-card issuers, they do include commercial information about the retail grocery stores at which SNAP recipients purchase their groceries. The Argus Leader newspaper (based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota) requested this data under the Freedom of Information Act to further its investigative reporting into SNAP-related fraud. Its appeal of USDA’s denial of its request landed twice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit before reaching the Supreme Court, where the justices will hear oral argument on April 22.

Read more here.  

Court opinion issued Apr. 12, 2019

Rose v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- dismissing plaintiff’s lawsuit because Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive had no record of receiving of plaintiff’s request, which was addressed to a facility that moved ten years ago.

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

Court opinions issued Apr. 11, 2019

Bartko v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- finding that EOUSA properly relied on Exemption 7(C) to withhold third-party information from three criminal case files, but that it failed to adequately explain its search for emails.

Poitras v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff’s request for attorney’s fees after finding that: (1) plaintiff had self-interested motives to seek records concerning her repeated border and airport detentions; and (2) withholdings by agencies were proper, let alone reasonable.

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

FOIA News: House committee seeks more money for Interior’s FOIA program

Dems want additional funds to meet FOIA 'transparency goals'

Scott Streater, E&E News, Apr. 12, 2019

The Democratic chairmen of the House Natural Resources and Oversight and Reform committees are asking appropriators to increase funding for the Interior Department program that handles Freedom of Information Act requests

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription).

Court opinion issued Apr. 10, 2019

Wessler v. DOJ (S.D.N.Y.) -- concluding that U.S. Marshals Service improperly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) to withhold medical records of federal pretrial detainees who died in the agency’s custody.

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

FOIA News: NASA proposing revisions to FOIA regulations

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration published a proposed rule in today’s issue of the Federal Register. The rule would make changes to the agency’s FOIA regulations, in accordance with the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016. Public comments must be submitted on or before May 28, 2019.