FOIA News: Fed Reserve should be subject to FOIA, says Senator Toomey

Top Republican Suggests Regional Fed Should Be Overhauled

• Toomey says status quo of regional banks is ‘unacceptable’

• He wants the Fed to be subject to public records request law

By Laura Davison, Bloomberg, Feb. 10, 2022

The top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee said Congress should weigh an overhaul of the U.S. Federal Reserve Regional Bank system and consider consolidating regional banks that are “wandering” into issues such as climate change.

Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said Thursday that the 12 regional banks were formed to manage the economies in their districts, but that largely ended in the 1930s as oversight was taken over by the central bank. That’s left the regional banks without a clear mandate, he said.

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Toomey said he is also concerned that the Fed is not being transparent with the public and has been “stonewalling” congressional inquiries into bank decisions. He said lawmakers should consider making the Fed subject to the records request law, the Freedom of Information Act, like other federal entities are.

Read more here.

FOIA News: D.C. Circuit to hear FOIA case on Feb. 11, 2022

On Friday, February 11, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear argument in the case Shapiro v. DOJ, No. 20-5318. Listen live to the argument before Judges Tatel, Wilkins, Rao here. A copy of the underlying decision at issue is here.

Court opinion issued Feb. 9, 2022

Smith v. EOUSA (S.D.N.Y.) -- determining that agency performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff’s transfer between state and federal custody in 2011 and that it properly withheld grand jury records pursuant to Exemption 3 in conjunction with Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e).

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

Court opinion issued Feb. 8, 2022

Junk v. Bd. of Governors of Fed. Reserve Sys. (2nd Cir.) (summary order) -- affirming district court’s decision that agency performed adequate search for “‘records from Maiden Lane LLC and Maiden Lane II LLC and Maiden Lane III LLC containing’ a specific nine-digit alphanumeric Committee on Uniform Security Identification Procedures ("CUSIP") number.”

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

FOIA News: Here come the FY 2021 annual reports

Agencies are required to post their fiscal year 2021 annual reports on their websites by March 1, 2022. Here are a few that we’ve found online already.

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• National Mediation Board

• Commodity Futures Trading Commission

• Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency

• Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission

• Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

• U.S. Trade Representative

• National Endowment for the Humanities

• Export-Import Bank

Q&A: Identities of FOIA requesters

Q. What rule or regulation provides that the identity of the requester is not confidential? And does this apply to OSHA FOIA requests?

A. Federal courts have ruled that FOIA requesters do not ordinarily expect that their names will be kept private and, therefore, release of their names would not cause even the minimal invasion of privacy necessary to trigger the balancing test under Exemption 6. By contrast, courts have decided that the identities of first-party requesters under the Privacy Act of 1974 should be protected because, unlike under the FOIA, an expectation of privacy can fairly be inferred from the personal nature of the records involved in those requests. See, e.g., Hammond v. DOD (D.D.C.) (protecting names of requesters seeking their own medical records from Walter Reed hospital).

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration appears to follow the relevant case law, as illustrated by its processing of the following 2016-2017 FOIA log.

FOIA News: Activists want to revise Obama-era FOIA memo

FOIA Advocates Say Biden Administration Is Ignoring Transparency Issues

New administrations usually issue memos on transparency. The Biden administration has ignored calls to do so.

By C.J. Ciaramella, Reason, Feb. 4, 2022

It's been more than a year since President Joe Biden took office, but his administration has yet to publish guidance to agencies on federal public record laws, a break from tradition that has frustrated transparency advocates.

This week, a coalition of transparency groups sent a second letter calling on the Justice Department to issue a memo on its interpretation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the groundbreaking 1966 law that, in theory, ensures public access to government records.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Feb. 2, 2022

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. CIA (2nd Cir.) -- reversing district court’s decision requiring disclosure of certain information contained in a draft summary of CIA’s former detention and interrogation program and holding that such information was protected under Exemption 1.

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. CIA (D.D.C) -- concluding that agency properly relied on Exemptions 1, 3, 5, and 6 to withhold records concerning nomination of Gina Haspel to serve as CIA’s Director.

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

Court opinion issued Feb. 1, 2022

Woodard v. USMS (D.D.C.) -- following in camera review of records concerning agency’s use of cell phone technology in apprehending plaintiff for capital murder, finding that agency properly redacted names of law enforcement officers under Exemption 7(C) and that its use of Exemption 7(C), 7(E), 7(D), and 7(F) to redact or fully withhold other records was justified in some instances and not others.

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

FOIA News: More from Yale's symposium on "Saving the Freedom of Information Act"

• No FOIA is an Island, by Heidi Kitrosser, Feb. 2, 2022

  Margaret Kwoka’s new book, Saving the Freedom of Information Act, is an impressive and important achievement. The book is grounded in the premise that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was inspired by, and is best directed toward, the goal of facilitating public and journalistic oversight of American government.

• Margaret Kwoka’s “Saving the Freedom of Information Act” as a Model for the Empirical Study of Administrative Law, by Nicholas R. Parrillo, Feb. 1, 2022.

  Margaret Kwoka’s Saving the Freedom of Information Act is one of the best empirical studies ever written on administrative law. Start with the findings, which are sweeping in their government-wide scope and striking in their substance.