FOIA News: NIH posts FOIA webinar

The National Institutes of Health’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare has released a 30-minute webinar on how NIH handles FOIA requests related to animal welfare. The discussion is hosted by OLAW Deputy Director Axel Wolff and NIH FOIA Program Officer Gorka Garcia-Malene.

FOIA News: Gov't FOIA jobs available

• Dep’t of Def., Sec’y, Gov’t Info. Specialist, GS-13, Virginia, closes Dec. 17, 2020

• Dep’t of the Air Force, Gov’t Info Specialist, GS-9, D.C., closes Dec. 17, 2020

• Social Sec. Admin., Gov’t Info. Specialist, GS-11, Maryland, closes Dec. 18, 2020

• Dep’t of Justice, Antitrust, Gov’t Info. Specialist, GS-9-11, D.C., closes Dec. 21, 2020

• Office of Personnel Mgmt., Supervisory Gov’t Info. Specialist, GS 15, D.C., closes Dec. 22, 2020

• Dep’t of Homeland Sec., FEMA, Gov’t Info, Specialist, IC 11-12, D.C., closes Dec. 23, 2020

• Dep’t of the Treasury/HQ, Supervisory Gov’t Info. Specialist, GS-14, D.C., closes Dec. 24, 2020

• Dep’t of the Interior/HQ, Gov’t Info. Specialist, GS-13, D.C., closes Dec. 24, 2020

FOIA News: FOIA Webinar on Dec. 14

Whistleblower Network News Hosts FOIA Webinar

By Ana Popovich, Whistleblower Network News, Dec. 11, 2020,

On December 14, 2020, Whistleblower Network News (WNN) will host a free webinar on how whistleblowers and journalists can use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

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Whistleblower attorney Stephen M. Kohn of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto will lead the webinar. Kohn has filed thousands of FOIA requests and litigated many successful FOIA appeals over the last four decades

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Dec. 9, 2020

WP Co. v. U.S. Dep’t of State (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff’s request for attorney’s fees because: (1) legal relationship between the parties was not changed by court’s issuance of “a routine scheduling order” imposing deadline on agency to make a final determination on plaintiff’s request; and (2) plaintiff failed to show that its lawsuit was “necessary” to or “caused” production of documents.

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

FOIA News: Startup enters the FOIA arena

Robot lawyer startup DoNotPay now lets you file FOIA requests

Zack Whittaker, Tech Crunch, Dec. 10, 2020

DoNotPay, the consumer advice company that started out helping people easily challenge parking tickets, has come a long way since it launched. It’s expanded to help consumers cancel memberships, claim compensation for missed flights, and even sue companies for small claims. In the early days of the pandemic, the startup helped its users file for unemployment, where many state benefit sites crashed.

Now the so-called “robot lawyer” has a new trick. The startup now lets you request information from U.S. federal and state government agencies under the Freedom of Information Act.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Dec. 8, 2020

Sierra Club v. EPA (N.D. Cal.) -- declining to order plaintiff to destroy records that EPA alleged were protected by Exemption 6 and erroneously released in response to plaintiff’s FOIA request

[See related article here]

Open Soc'y Justice Initiative v. CIA (S.D.N.Y.) -- ruling that Office of the Director of National Intelligence was required to produce a Vaughn Index concerning a tape of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, and that the CIA was required to produce a Vaughn Index for the agency’s report on the killing, because the government officially acknowledged existence of both records.

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

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee to meet on Thursday

The Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee will meet virtually on Thursday, December 10, 2020, from 10AM to 1PM. The meeting will be livestreamed on the National Archives’ YouTube channel. The agenda is available here.

FOIA News: ASAP hosts FOIA training seminar on Dec. 8

The American Society of Access Professional will be hosting a training seminar entitled SCOTUS and Exemption 5: Deliberative Process Privilege on December 8, 2020. Presenters include Dick Huff, former co-founder of the Department of Justice, Office of Information Policy, and Adam A. Marshall, Staff Attorney at Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. See details here. 

Court opinions issued Dec. 3, 2020

Ctr. for Investigative Reporting v. DOJ (9th Cir.) -- in a 2-1 decision, reversing and remanding district court’s decision and holding that a rider to Consolidated Appropriations Acts did not qualify as an Exemption 3 statute; further ruling that ATF had not demonstrated that requested weapons information was incapable of being extracted from its Firearms Tracing System database.

Samuel v. U.S. Dep’t of State (D.S.C.) -- summarily adopting magistrate judge’s report and recommendation that agency properly refused to confirm or deny existence of “Cuba Condition” records.

Werth v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- on renewed summary judgment, which plaintiff did not oppose, concluding that U.S. Marshals Service performed adequate search for records pertaining to plaintiff’s property and properly redacted names of law enforcement officials pursuant to Exemptions 6 and 7(C).

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

Court opinion issued Dec. 2, 2020

Humane Soc’y of the United States v. U.S Fish & Wildlife Serv. (4th Cir.) (unpublished) -- affirming district court’s decision that: (1) plaintiff’s “reading room” claim was moot because agency posted all requested records online; (2) agency was not obligated to post future-generated records on rolling basis; and (3) agency properly indexed its posted records, but even if it hadn’t, plaintiff was not entitled to prospective relief.

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