Bernegger v. EOUSA (D.D.C.) -- concluding that EOUSA properly denied plaintiff’s fee waiver request associated with his request for access to his prosecution and conviction records.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
The U.S Department of Labor has released its annual FOIA report for fiscal year 2021, which indicates that it received a total of 13,560 initial requests and processed 14,022 requests. DOL trimmed its backlog from 1714 requests in FY 2020 to 1216 request in FY 2021, a 29 percent decrease.
Sen. Rick Scott Introduces Broadband Buildout Accountability Act to Increase Transparency in Public Investment in Broadband Deployment
Feb. 24, 2022
Today, Senator Rick Scott introduced the Broadband Buildout Accountability Act with Ranking Member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Senator Roger Wicker, to increase transparency for a $42 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Package (BIF) broadband buildout grant awarded to the National Technology Information Administration (NTIA), which is currently exempted from transparency requirements under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Senator Scott’s Broadband Buildout Accountability Act would remove the FOIA exemption and require proof of how the $42 billion is spent to ensure taxpayer dollars are not misused. Senators Marsha Blackburn, Roy Blunt, Shelley Moore Capito, Ted Cruz, Deb Fischer, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Cynthia Lummis, Jerry Moran, Dan Sullivan, John Thune, Roger Wicker, and Todd Young have also cosponsored the bill.
Read more here.
Lawmakers Press Garland on Access to Documents for Public, Congress
Teresa Mettela, Wall St. J., Feb. 23, 2022
WASHINGTON—A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to press federal agencies to emphasize transparency and openness when responding to Freedom of Information Act requests, after government reports showed an increase in denials in recent years.
The House oversight and Senate judiciary committees sent a letter to Mr. Garland asking him to issue a memorandum encouraging agencies to implement FOIA in a manner that will increase access to government documents for the public and Congress.
“A clear message from you that transparency is a priority would encourage agencies to fully comply with the law,” the lawmakers said.
Read more here.
A copy of the congressional letter is here.
Am. Civil Liberties Union Found. of N.H. v. U.S. Customs & Border Prot. (D.N.H.) -- ordering agency to file supplemental declaration addressing the scope of its search and why it found certain records to be non-responsive to plaintiff’s request, but ruling that agency’s original declaration and Vaughn Index provided court with sufficient information to evaluate agency’s segregability determinations.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Graham v. DHS (E.D. Cal.) -- holding that plaintiff’s claim was not time-barred when he filed suit exactly 6 years after ICE issued its second (and final) administrative appeal response, because —in the court's view -- the agency's timely-issued remand of plaintiff's first administrative appeal prevented plaintiff from exhausting his administrative remedies and thus delayed the accrual of his claim.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
The U.S. Department of Transportation released its FY 2021 annual FOIA report on Thursday, February 17, 2022, twelve days ahead of DOJ’s deadline. No other cabinet department has released its annual report as of the time of this post.
Last week we reported that several agencies had posted their 2021 annual FOIA reports in advance of DOJ’s March 1st deadline. Here are a few more reports that we have found online since then.
Graham v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- granting summary judgment to government after finding that plaintiff failed to identify any public policy harms that would override criminal justice interests favoring enforcement of plaintiff’s voluntary waiver of FOIA rights in his plea agreement.
Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. U.S. Dep’t of State (D.D.C.) -- deciding that: (1) agency did not submit sufficient information to permit court to evaluate whether agency properly invoked Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold two categories of records concerning its handling of requests from congressional committee chairs; and (2) agency improperly redacted “simple statistics” and other factual information from weekly report that did not fall within deliberative process privilege or meet foreseeable harm provision.
Saterlee v. IRS (W.D. Mo.) -- ruling that: (1) agency performed adequate search, except in one instance, for various certificate of assessments and notices of federal tax liens concerning plaintiff; (2) agency failed to prove that it properly withheld employee’s oath of office pursuant to Exemption 6, but it properly used same exemption to withhold other records from employee’s personnel file.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Stonehill v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- in case involving investigatory records of plaintiff’s deceased husband’s business in the Philippines, concluding that: (1) Tax Division was permitted to amend its Answer to add res judicata defense, but rejecting agency’s defense on merits concerning request for “records from 1957-1976 concerning Mr. Stonehill”; (2) rejecting Tax Division’s res judicata defense to request concerning Philippine’s national bureau of investigations; (3) ordering agency to complete processing of request that it neglected for three years—which the court called “unacceptable”—and to justify any withholdings on renewed summary judgment; (4) Tax Division performed adequate search for records concerning government consultant, but finding agency’s earlier errors “troubling” and urging agency to take “greater care in the future”; (5) Tax Division properly relied on Exemptions 5, 6, and 7(C) to withhold some, but not all, records identified in the Tax Division’s opening brief and rejecting plaintiff’s assertion of government misconduct exception; and (6) Tax Division failed to justify its Exemption 5 withholdings for records located after it filed its opening brief and denying agency’s request to submit sampling Vaughn Index.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.