General Attorney in the Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act Unit at The Department of Justice Office of Enforcement Operations
Deadline is May 31, 2019.
Read more here.
General Attorney in the Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act Unit at The Department of Justice Office of Enforcement Operations
Deadline is May 31, 2019.
Read more here.
Proctor v. NARA (N.D. Cal.) -- finding that: (1) agency properly relied on Exemption 3 in conjunction with Rule Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) to withhold plaintiff's 1998 deposition transcript regarding Monica Lewinsky, except as to the identities of the prosecutors, the court reporter, and plaintiff; and (2) court did not have inherent authority to release remaining deposition transcript; that authority belonged to the Eastern District of Virginia, under whose supervision the transcript was produced.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Humane Soc'y v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv. (E.D. Va.) -- concluding that: (1) agency released copies of all requested African elephant and lion trophy permits, which mooted plaintiff’s claim; and (2) FOIA’s reading room provision did not obligate government to publish permitting records created in the future on a continuous basis.
Willis v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- finding that FBI performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff and that it properly withheld name of agency employee pursuant to Exemption 6.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Watchdogs Use FOIA as a ‘Weapon,’ Justice Department Complains
The memo acknowledges a salient fact: There are more people than ever taking it upon themselves to inform the general public about the activities of the U.S. government.
By Lachlan Markay, Daily Beast, May 16, 2019
The Department of Justice complained in early 2018 that nonprofit good-government groups were weaponizing federal open-records laws, according to a memo obtained, appropriately enough, through a Freedom of Information Act request.
“A host of government watchdog groups now essentially seek to use FOIA requests and related litigation as a weapon in the political and advocacy process,” reads the memo, authored by the DOJ’s civil division, which is charged with defending the government in FOIA lawsuits.
Read more here (subscription required)
The Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy has updated the first two sections of DOJ’s Guide to the Freedom of Information Act. The FOIA Guide was once reprinted annually or biannually, but it has been updated only sporadically online in recent years.
Closing the Book on Spanberger’s SF-86
By Evan Kielar & Scott R. Anderson, Lawfare, May 13, 2019
Last year, one of us filed a “meta-FOIA” request with Benjamin Wittes seeking information on how former CIA officer and then-congressional candidate (now congresswoman) Abigail Spanberger’s unredacted SF-86 form was released in response to a right-wing advocacy group’s FOIA request. We petitioned both the National Archives and Records Administrations (NARA) and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), each of which had played a role in the release.
Read more here.
May 10, 2019
Scott v. U.S. Attorney Offices (D. Md.) -- dismissing lawsuit after determining that plaintiff failed to appeal EOUSA’s initial response to his request and that EOUSA released all responsive records.
May 8, 2019
Chetal v. U.S. Dep't of Interior (N.D. Cal.) -- denying plaintiff’s motion for sanctions after finding that government produced records ordered to be released.
Am. Civil Liberties Union of Me. Found. v. DHS (D. Me.) -- upholding in part DHS’s Exemption 7(E) redactions to records concerning immigration investigations in which government officers stopped bus passengers to ask whether they are United States citizens.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here. .
BuzzFeed Won't Seek ID Of Subordinate In Affair With US Atty
Law360, May 8, 2019
BuzzFeed has agreed not to push for the federal government to reveal the identity of a subordinate who had an affair with a U.S. attorney, signing off on a proposed settlement in New York federal court in which only the top official's name would be released.
Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription),
New York attorney general sues Trump Treasury, IRS
By Naomi Jagoda , The Hill, May 6, 2019
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and IRS, arguing that the agencies have failed to respond to information requests about their guidance reducing donor disclosure requirements for certain tax-exempt groups.
"My office depends on these critical donor disclosure forms to be able to adequately oversee non-profit organizations in New York," said James, who filed the suit alongside New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal (D).
Read more here.
DOJ exploring artificial intelligence to help process FOIA requests
By David Thornton, Fed. News Network, May 3, 2019
Though the data has yet to be released, Melanie Pustay, director of the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy (OIP), expects 2018 was another record-breaking year for Freedom of Information Act requests. That means additional burdens on FOIA staff governmentwide, greater difficulty in reducing existing backlogs, and an interest in new ways of handling the increasing demand.
“I’m certainly expecting there to be even more FOIA requests for fiscal year [2018] than the year before,” Pustay said on Agency in Focus – Justice Department. “Certainly our trend line has been ever increasing numbers of requests; the public just seems like they can’t get enough of government information. And obviously it’s a great thing. On the one hand, we love to see people engage, but the challenge for agencies is keeping up with the demand.”
Read more here.