FOIA News: Awards announced for worst 2021 public records responses

The Foilies 2022

By Dave Mass et al., Elec. Frontier Found., Mar. 13, 2022

Each year during Sunshine Week (March 13-19), The Foilies serve up tongue-in-cheek "awards" for government agencies and assorted institutions that stand in the way of access to information. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock combine forces to collect horror stories about Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state-level public records requests from journalists and transparency advocates across the United States and beyond. Our goal is to identify the most surreal document redactions, the most aggravating copy fees, the most outrageous retaliation attempts, and all the other ridicule-worthy attacks on the public's right to know.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Sunshine Week begins on March 13, 2022

Sunshine Week & Freedom of Information Day: March 13-19 & 16, 2022

U.S. Census Bureau, Mar. 13, 2022

According to Sunshineweek.org, “Sunshine Week was launched in 2005 by the American Society of News Editors — now News Leaders Association — and has grown into an enduring initiative to promote open government. Join News Leaders Association in the annual nationwide celebration of access to public information and what it means for you and your community. It’s your right to know.” 

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Mar. 11, 2022

Am. Immigration Council v. U.S. Customs & Border Patrol (D.D.C.) -- deciding that: (1) CBP failed to perform adequate search for various records pertaining to pilot program allowing CBP officials to conduct asylum-related interviews; (2) DHS and USCIS did not provide sufficient information to justify its withholdings pursuant to Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege, nor did they satisfy statute’s foreseeable harm provision; and (3) government improperly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) to withhold names of CBP officers appearing on one document.

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

FOIA News: More agencies post 2022 Chief FOIA Officer Reports

On March 7, 2022, we reported that agencies had begun to release their 2022 Chief FOIA Officer Reports. Here are several more reports that we have found online since then:

• U.S. Dep’t of Labor

• Securities & Exchange Commission

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

• U.S. Postal Service

• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

• Federal Communications Commission

• U.S. Dep’t of State

FOIA News: Americans for Prosperity Foundation Hosts Sunshine Week 2022 Symposium

On March 18, 2022 at 1:00 PM ET, Americans for Prosperity Foundation will host a virtual Sunshine Week 2022 Symposium featuring FOIA Advisor contributors Allan Blutstein and Ryan Mulvey. Information on the event, panelists, and registration information below.

The discussion will involve reflection on this year's submissions to the AFPF Sunshine Week 2022 Essay Symposium, as well as broader conversation about the state of FOIA and the prospects for change.

Learn more about the symposium, and read the panelists' essays here:
Panelists:
Ginger Quintero-McCall, Demand Progress
Matt Topic, Loevy & Loevy
Kate Oh, American Civil Liberties Union
Allan Blutstein, America Rising / FOIA Advisor
Kel McClanahan, National Security Counselors
Susan Harley, Public Citizen
Melissa Wasser, Project on Government Oversight
Moderator:
Ryan Mulvey, Americans for Prosperity Foundation

Register for the event here.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee passes "Don't Say Glomar" proposal

The Department of Justice should advise federal agencies to stop using the word “Glomar” and replace it with “neither confirm nor deny” (NCND), according to one of four Glomar-related recommendations adopted by the federal FOIA Advisory Committee on March 10, 2022. The director of DOJ’s Office of Information Policy expressed skepticism about canceling the four decades-old term of art, but he abstained from the vote. Four committee members voted against the proposal.

Court opinions issued Mar. 9, 2022

S. Poverty Law Ctr. v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- ruling that IRS properly invoked Exemption 3 to withhold records prepared, furnished, or collected in connection with its criminal investigation of Tennessee slaughterhouse, because such records constituted return information under 26 U.S.C. § 6103(a).

Long v. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enf’t (N.D.N.Y.) -- concluding that ICE performed adequate database search concerning “Form I-247 Requests” relating to detainers and notices of release, and that agency was not mandated to create ‘new, complex queries and new records resulting from those newly created queries.’

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

Court opinion issued Mar. 8, 2022

Block v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- finding that EOUSA performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff and government properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 3, 5, 7(C), 7(D), and 7(F).

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

FOIA News: ICYMI, tech tool might help FOIA requesters

A new tool allows journalists to quickly sort through FOIA data dumps

By Paroma Soni, Columbia Journalism Rev., Mar. 2, 2022

IN THE 2020 FISCAL YEAR ALONE, federal agencies received nearly 800,000 requests under freedom of information laws. The process is notoriously frustrating, marked by delays, denials, and appeals before documents are turned over (if they ever are). Even success can be exasperating—documents arrive in the form of large dumps, without any meaningful organization. All that work is time- and labor-intensive; for smaller newsrooms with fewer financial resources and less manpower, it may feel prohibitive. A recent foia workshop held by the Chicago Headline Club included a session called “More data, more problems,” aimed at finding new approaches to reporting with massive data dumps.  

“I file a lot of foia requests, and I often get back hundreds and hundreds of emails, documents, and a ton of text files,” Hilke Schellmann, a journalism professor at New York University, says. “I don’t necessarily know what or where the smoking gun will be, but I know I don’t need to read hundreds of emails about someone’s lunch schedule to find it.”

Read more here.

FOIA News: Notes from a prolific FOIA requester

Ken Klippenstein, a reporter at the Intercept and self-described “prolific FOIA requester,” discussed the FOIA during a student journalism conference on March 4, 2022. His 45-minute talk is here.