Buffalo Field Campaign v. U.S Dep’t of the Interior (D. Mont.) -- concluding that National Park Service improperly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to redact records pertaining to bison population in Yellowstone Park, except with respect to one draft document that met foreseeable harm requirement.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
The Office of Government Information Services will remotely host its annual open meeting on July 20, 2020. See registration details here.
Snarr v. BOP (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) plaintiff, a death row inmate, did not have standing to bring lawsuit for third party records because his legal defense team submitted the requests and failed to identify their client in the request or in any other correspondence with the agency; (2) plaintiff could not amend his complaint to substitute a new party in order to create jurisdiction.
Am. Immigration Council v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- explaining four factors that led court to grant plaintiff’s request for preliminary injunctive release, resulting in timetable for government to process records pertaining to its response to COVID-19 pandemic.
Malone v. U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury (W.D. Ky.) -- dismissing plaintiff’s claims against the IRS because he failed to administratively appeal from any of 15 requests he submitted to IRS.
Ctr. for Investigative Reporting v. DOL (N.D. Cal.) -- concluding that Occupational Safety and Health Administration improperly relied on Exemption 4 to withhold illness and injury data about Amazon, noting that the company actually and customarily treated information as non-confidential and that government did not assure confidentiality at time information was submitted.
Am. Civil Liberties Union of Me. Found v. DHS (D. Me.) -- concluding that U.S. Customs and Border Protection properly invoked Exemption 7(E) to redact most—but not all—records regarding the location, method of operation, and purpose of immigration checkpoints.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Judge Who Read Unredacted Mueller Report Has a Spreadsheet Full of Questions for the DOJ to Answer
By Colin Kalmbacher, Law & Crime, July 6, 2020
A federal judge who has been highly critical of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Donald Trump has a spreadsheet full of questions for the agency to answer about the undredacted Mueller Report. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton issued a brief order on Monday outlining his request for the DOJ in anticipation of a hearing scheduled for July 20.
Read more here.
Let’s celebrate Freedom of Information Act
By League of Women Voters, Journal Review, July 3, 2020
Independence Day July 4 marks 54 years since the landmark Freedom of Information Act went into effect — yet some Americans are still distrustful of government.
The Freedom of Information Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 4, 1966. This legislation gives citizens the right to request and obtain documents from any agency of the Executive Branch of the United States Government except those that are exempted by statute such as classified documents.
Read more here.
Am. Ctr. for Law & Justice v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- concluding that plaintiff failed to show that the FBI had a policy or practice of not complying with plaintiff’s requests until plaintiff filed suit, because the three requests cited by plaintiff were “of strikingly different subject matter and scope” and FBI’s actions across the three requests were not uniform.
Powell v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) collateral estoppel or issue preclusion barred plaintiff from litigating certain records and that plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies with respect to several requests; and (2) IRS performed reasonable search for all but one remaining disputed record.
Shapiro v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- in 107-page opinion addressing 83 requests submitted to FBI and ATF between 2005 and 2012, determining that: (1) plaintiff failed to demonstrate need for discovery; (2) FBI and ATF performed adequate search for records pertaining to animal rights activism; (3) based on sampling of disputed records, FBI properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 1, 3, 5, 7(A), 7(C), 7(D), and 7(E), but improperly relied on Exemption 4 in withholding two pages from a copyrighted book; (4) FBI’s processing error rate of 16 percent was not high enough to justify warrant complete reprocessing of withheld records; (5) ATF failed to demonstrate that it properly relied on Exemption 3 to withhold records submitted to a grand jury or that it properly withheld records pertaining to Macy’s department store pursuant to Exemption 4, but properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 5, 7(D), and 7(E).
Swick v. U.S. Dep’t of the Army (D.D.C.) -- deciding that Army did not perform adequate search for plaintiff’s psychological evaluation records or for electronic records associated with plaintiff’s employment file.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
ICE Just Became Even Less Transparent
The new classification protects the identity of officials from public disclosure.
By Ken Klippenstein, The Nation, July 2, 2020
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can now operate in greater secrecy, thanks to a special security classification quietly granted to it by the Trump administration. While ICE chief Matthew Albence heralded it as “a tremendous achievement,” experts say the designation deals a blow to transparency.
On June 11, the administration classified ICE as a “Security Agency,” according to a memo signed by Albence and dated June 26. This new designation puts ICE employees in the same category as high-level intelligence officials, and blocks from disclosure information that is typically public, such as name, job title, and salary. The memo was provided to The Nation by an ICE official on condition of anonymity.
Read more here.
SUMMARY: The Department of Defense (DoD) is proposing to amend its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulation, which last published in the Federal Register as a final rule on February 6, 2018, to update certain administrative aspects of the Department’s implementation of the FOIA, including adding an additional FOIA Requester Service Center. DoD is also proposing to clarify, by adopting the standards set forth in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Template for Agency FOIA Regulations, that the decision to participate in FOIA alternative dispute resolution services is voluntary on the part of the requestor and DoD.
Read more here.
The Office of Government Information Services announced today that the FOIA Advisory Committee has extended its deadline for membership nominations from July 2, 2020 to July 10, 2020. No explanation for the extension was provided.
Amin v. Trump (D.D.C.) -- dismissing plaintiff's claims against multiple components of the Department of Justice because plaintiff, a pro se prisoner seeking his criminal records, failed to show that DOJ received any of his requests.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.