Court opinions issued Nov. 5, 2020

Smart-Tek Servs. v. IRS (9th Cir.) (unpublished) -- affirming district court’s decision that IRS performed adequate search for plaintiffs’ employment, corporate, and partnership tax returns, and holding that records of alter ego companies—which were commingled with plaintiffs’ records during FOIA processing and withheld by IRS under Exemption 3—were not responsive to plaintiffs’ requests.

WP Co. v. SBA (D.D.C.) -- determining that SBA failed to demonstrate that Exemptions 4 and 6 protected the names of loan recipients and amounts borrowed from the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Disaster Loans program. In reaching its decision, the court noted that the SBA had notified loan applicants that such information would be disclosed upon request.

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

FOIA News: SBA must disclose PPP loan records, court rules

Pandemic Loan Programs Borrower Info Must Be Released by SBA

By Porter Wells, Bloomberg Law, Nov. 5, 2020

• SBA has disbursed $717 billion to support economy

• Names, loan amounts sought through public records requests

The Small Business Administration must release detailed information about the businesses that received loans from the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, including the names of those recipients and the precise amount of each loan, a federal judge in Washington said Thursday.

Read more here.

Breaking: D.D.C Rules that SBA Must Disclose All PPP Recipients

WP Company LLC v. U.S. Small Business Administration (D.D.C.) — “The Court will grant the news-organization Plaintiffs’ Cross Motion for Summary Judgment and CPI’s Cross-Motion for Partial Summary Judgment and order that Defendant release the names, addresses, and precise loan amounts of all individuals and entities that obtained PPP and EIDL COVID-related loans by November 19, 2020.”

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

FOIA News: FBI draws court's ire over McCabe records

Judge slams FBI over stonewalling request for McCabe documents

By Jeff Mordock, Wash. Times, Nov. 4, 2020

An irritated federal judge Wednesday grilled the FBI for dragging its feet on her order to produce emails and text messages from former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that may show conflicts of interest with his wife’s political campaign.

U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said she simply did not understand why the FBI is slow-walking document production even after a May ruling ordering it to produce the materials.

Brenda Gonzales Horowitz, an attorney for the FBI, said the bureau is producing 500 pages a month, a number Judge Chutkan slammed as “unacceptable.”

Read more here.

FOIA News: 9th Circ. Says FOIA Info Can Count As Corrective Disclosure

9th Circ. Says FOIA Info Can Count As Corrective Disclosure

By Jon Hill, Law360, Nov. 3, 2020

The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday revived a proposed investor class action accusing the since-rebranded BofI Holding Inc. of securities fraud, ruling that the publication of information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request can count as a corrective disclosure for loss causation pleading purposes.

Read more here (subscription).

FOIA News: OSTP issues final FOIA regulations

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has published a final version of its FOIA regulations, which incorporates the changes made by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016. The new regulations are effective on December 4, 2020.

FOIA News: Jobs, jobs, jobs

• Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/OIG, Gov’t Info. Specialist, Wash. D.C., GS 9-11, closes 11/5/20

• Dep’t of Justice/Criminal Div., Gov’t Info. Specialist, Wash, D.C., GS-9, closes 11/6/20

• Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, Gov’t Info. Specialist, Sioux Falls, ND, GS 11-12, closes 11/10/20

• DHS/Coast Guard, Gov’t Info. Specialist, Wash. D.C., GS 13-14, closes 11/12/20

• Dep’t of the Army, Gov. Info. Specialist, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, GS-12, closes 11/12/20

• U.S. Postal Serv., Gov. Info. Specialist, Wash., D.C., EAS-21, closes 11/13/20

FOIA News: Recap of SCOTUS FOIA argument

Justices Fret Over FOIA Evasion but Debate Sierra Club Standard

By Ellen M. Gilmer, Bloomberg Law, Nov. 2, 2020

• Broad coalition back environmentalists in case

• Dispute involves government records under FOIA

The U.S. Supreme Court seemed wary Monday of limiting government disclosure requirements, but unsure where to draw the line in a complex clash over Endangered Species Act records.

The case, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club, has big implications for government transparency, in environmental contexts and beyond. It attracted even broader interest as newly confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett sat for oral argument for the first time.

Hearing the case remotely, Barrett and her colleagues pressed both sides to explain what legal test the high court should apply when deciding whether draft documents are subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. The dispute centers on federal wildlife agencies’ draft opinions that a proposed EPA regulation would harm endangered species.

Read more here.

A transcript of the oral argument is here.

FOIA News: SCOTUS to hear FOIA case on Monday

See a preview of the case, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club, from SCOTUSBlog here, as well as the case material here. A transcript of the oral argument will be made available on same day here.

Court opinions issued Oct. 30, 2020

Brennan Ctr. for Justice at NYU Sch. of Law v. Dep’t of Commerce (D.D.C.) -- granting in part plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction and ordering agency to process three items of plaintiff’s request regarding the 2020 U.S. census and to produce Vaughn indices by January 11, 2020.

Prot. Democracy Proj. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- granting in part plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction and ordering DOJ to confer with plaintiff on schedule to produce agency communications with the United States Postal Inspection Service regarding USPIS’s participation in any voting fraud task force.

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