FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee Hearing Scheduled for May 1, 2020

SUMMARY: We are announcing an upcoming Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee meeting in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the second United States Open Government National Action Plan.

DATES: The meeting will be on May 1, 2020, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. EST. You must register by midnight EST April 28, 2020, to attend the meeting.

LOCATION: This meeting will be held virtually. Instructions on how to access will be sent to those who register according to instructions below.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Apr. 18, 2020

Hardway v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- determining that agency performed reasonable search for records concerning plaintiff and his former colleagues who worked on congressional committee that investigated assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Of note, holding that it was reasonable for the CIA to use the date it commenced the multistep “search process” as the search cut-off date instead of the date the agency executed searches in agency databases.

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

FOIA News: Fight over law firm's billing records

King & Spalding Argues Feds Should Destroy, or Return, Sealed Billing Records

King & Spalding withdrew an attorney fee request after a Washington trial judge said the firm would need to reveal hourly rates and other records. The U.S. Justice Department is opposing the firm's push for an order requiring the government to destroy or return the disputed billing records.

By Mike Scarcella, Nat’l Law Journal, Apr. 18, 2020

King & Spalding and the U.S. Justice Department are locked in a dispute in Washington over whether a trial judge has the power to order the government to destroy or return copies of billing records that the law firm submitted as part of its request for attorney fees in a public records lawsuit.

King & Spalding withdrew its request for $665,000 in legal fees after a federal judge said the firm could not keep certain records sealed on the public docket showing the billing rates of partners and others who had worked on the case. The firm has urged the judge, Amit Mehta, to order the government to destroy or return its hard copies of the disputed records.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Apr. 16, 2020

LegalForce RAPC Worldwide v. USPTO (N.D. Cal.) -- following in camera review, ruling that U.S. Patent & Trade Office performed adequate search for records concerning agency’s misconduct investigation against one of plaintiff’s attorney, and that agency properly withheld all disputed records pursuant to Exemption 5’s attorney work-product privilege or Exemptions 6 and 7(C); in dicta, cautioning USPTO to prepare complete and accurate Vaughn indices because even inadvertent errors can seriously prejudice FOIA plaintiffs.

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

FOIA News: Court rules against IRS re: asset forfeiture data

IRS Ordered to Turn Over Records in Seized Asset Data Dispute

By Bloomberg Tax, Apr. 17, 2020

The IRS has to turn over a wider scope of seized asset records under the Freedom of Information Act after a federal district court judge sided with a libertarian group that requested the documents.

The dispute stems from a 2015 FOIA request from the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm, which requested records from the agency’s Asset Forfeiture Tracking and Retrieval System. The system is used to monitor IRS-seized assets from private citizens.

Read more here (subscription required).

FOIA News: ICYMI, orgs ask House to nix DOD's proposed FOIA exemption

In a letter dated April 14, 2020, twenty-five organizations urged the House Armed Services Committee to reject a proposal in an appropriation bill that would exempt from FOIA “information on military tactics, techniques, and procedures, and of military rules of engagement.” This is the sixth time that the Pentagon has attempted to include similar language in appropriations bills since 2011.

FOIA News: CFO Tech Committee fills vacancies

On April 15, 2020, the Office of Government Information Services announced that government volunteers had filled all open slots on the Technology Committee of the Chief FOIA Officers (CFO) Council.

FOIA News: CPSC proposes to amend FOIA regs

The Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to revise its FOIA regulations as outlined in a notice published in the Federal Register today. Most of the amendments pertain to fee provisions. Comments will be accepted through June 30, 2020.

Court opinion issued Apr. 14, 2020

Stein v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) CIA conducted adequate search for background investigation records concerning various Trump administration candidates, but improperly redacted their names pursuant to Exemption 6; (2) FBI properly interpreted plaintiff’s request for agency’s security clearance procedures, but nonetheless failed to perform adequate search; (3) plaintiff failed to administratively appeal from DOD HQ’s “no records” response; DOD’s Defense Manpower Data Center properly interpreted plaintiff’s request and demonstrated that performing search would be futile; (4) DOJ failed to show that its Mail Referral Unit properly referred request; (5) plaintiff was not required to appeal from of Office of Personnel Management’s “interim” responses; OPM properly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) to withhold personally identifying information, but court lacked information to evaluate other contested records; (6) ODNI performed adequate search and properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 6, but its segregability analysis was insufficient; (7) Department of Education failed to show that it would be futile to search for security clearance records concerning Betsy Devos; (8) Department of State did not provide court sufficient information to determine whether it properly withheld records concerning Rex Tillerson pursuant to Exemptions 6 and 7(C).

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

FOIA News: BLM sued to prevent disclosure of Burning Man info

Burning Man Sues Feds to Block Release of Financial Records

By Nicholas Iovino, Courthouse News Serv., Apr. 13, 2020

Burning Man organizers sued the Bureau of Land Management on Sunday to block the agency from turning over “confidential financial information” to a fervent critic who claims the annual festival cheats his rural Nevada county out of vital revenue each year.

The Burning Man Project is challenging the bureau’s March 30 decision to disclose information requested by David Skelton, a board member of Pershing County’s Economic Development Authority and 2020 candidate for county commissioner.

Read more here.