Kopp v. U.S. Secret Serv. (N.D. Cal.) -- awarding $21,692.66 in attorney’s fees and costs in connection with request for records concerning Donald Trump, Jr.’s trip to India, rejecting government’s argument that two of plaintiff’s requests were overly broad and vague.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Am. Civil Liberties Union v. NSA (2nd Cir.) -- affirming district court’s decision that six intelligence program documents were exempt from disclosure under Exemptions 1 and 3, and that a DOJ/Office of Legal Counsel memorandum was protected pursuant to Exemption 5. Notably, the Circuit rejected appellant’s arguments that the government’s Exemption 5 withholdings were undermined by the doctrines of “working law,” “express adoption,” or “incorporation by reference.”
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Satterlee v. Comm’r of IRS (W.D. Mo., 2019) -- concluding that: (1) plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies with respect to three of his four requests, which sought various records concerning tax liens; (2) plaintiff’s fourth request was improper because it sought the creation of a records or the answer to a question; (3) plaintiff was not entitled to expedited processing or to the litigation costs he incurred.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
The Office of Government Information Services published a notice in today’s issue of the Federal Register to announce the next meeting of the FOIA Advisory Committee on June 6, 2019, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. Those who wish to attend the meeting must register by June 3, 2019. The meeting will be live-streamed for those who are unable to attended on the National Archives’s YouTube channel.
Bernhardt defends Interior Department’s public records review policy
By Tribune News Service, Austin Amer. Statesman, May 23, 2019
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt defended on Wednesday the agency’s policy allowing politically appointed officials to review and comment on public records requests that relate to them.
Appearing before a Senate appropriations subcommittee to testify about his department’s budget, Bernhardt said the so-called “awareness review” policy was legal.
“It’s a process that’s very long-standing in the department,” Bernhardt told the committee. “We definitely formalized it,” he said. “It’s completely legal.
Read more here.
Pub. Citizen. v. U.S. Dep't of Educ. (D.D.C.) -- concluding that agency properly relied on deliberative process and attorney-client privileges to withhold records pertaining to agency event, notably including the name of agency attorney from whom advice was sought.
Amadis v. DOJ (D.D.C. ) -- ruling that: (1) plaintiff failed to exhaust administrative remedies with respect to responses issued by DEA and FBI, notwithstanding those agencies’ offers to perform additional searches; (2) DEA performed adequate search for records pertaining to agency’s processing of plaintiff’s earlier FOIA request; (3) FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(E) to withhold search slips and case notes pertaining to its processing of plaintiff’s earlier FOIA request; (4) DOJ’s Office of Information Policy reasonably interpreted scope of plaintiff’s request and properly relied on Exemptions 5 and 6 to withhold information from its appeal “blitz” forms; (5) Department of State performed adequate search for records pertaining to its processing of plaintiff’s earlier FOIA request.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Interior Department policy let political appointees review FOIA requests
So-called awareness review process could expose department to legal action
By Jacob Holzman, Roll Call, May 22, 2019
The Interior Department has for about a year allowed political appointees to weigh in on which federal records are released to the public, creating delays that could violate open records law and expose the department to legal action.
Read more here.
The Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled has published amended FOIA regulations with a public comment deadline of June 10, 2019. The Committee last revised its FOIA regulations in 1998.
A Rule by the Management and Budget Office on 05/21/2019
Link here.
A Rule by the Institute of Museum and Library Services on 05/21/2019
Link here.
The Justice Department Spent Nearly Two Years Fighting To Hide The Identity Of A US Attorney Accused Of Misconduct
A federal judge ordered DOJ to release the now-former US attorney’s name after BuzzFeed News sued.
By Zoe Tillman, BuzzFeed News, May 20, 2019
The Justice Department’s inspector general announced in May 2017 that an unnamed US attorney, who had since retired, committed misconduct in office. He’d had an affair with a subordinate, according to the one-page release, created a hostile work environment, and potentially violated department sexual harassment rules.
Two years later — after BuzzFeed News went to court — a judge found that the public’s interest in bad behavior by top government officials outweighed their right to privacy and forced the Justice Department to release his name late last week: Stephen Wigginton, who served as a US attorney in Illinois from 2010 to 2015.
Read more here.