Selgjekaj v. EOUSA (D.D.C.) -- on renewed summary judgment, ruling that EOUSA reasonably described its search for grand jury records associated with plaintiff’s criminal prosecution.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
On June 22, 2022, the Social Security Administration issued a request for information (RFI) for replacement software for its FOIAonline case management, which is being eliminated. The “sunsetting” of FOIAonline was reported in 2021, albeit never widely announced. A FOIA request from Government Attic to EPA about the demise of FOIAonline yielded 627 pages of records.
Smith v. EOUSA (S.D.N.Y.) -- denying plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration of summary motion in government’s favor, but agreeing that pro se plaintiff was eligible and entitled to award of filing and mailing costs due, in part, to agency’s dilatory search for records.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
BuzzFeed Inc. v. DOJ (S.D.N.Y.) -- ruling that DOJ properly relied on Exemption 7(C) to withhold identity of former DOJ employee who had sexually harassed a subordinate, according to public OIG report.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
How contractors use FOIA to spy on one another
Tom Temin, Fed. News Network, June 21, 2022
The Freedom of Information Act might be best known as a way for journalists and public interest groups to get information about the operations of government. But it can also be a tool for companies to get confidential information about their competitors. Safeguarding that information has gotten more complicated in the last few years. Because the state of the law around the FOIA exemption that applies to things like trade secrets, it’s all in flux. Nathan Castellano is a special counsel in the government contracts group at Jenner and Block. He wrote a recent briefing paper about these complications and talked about them with Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
Read more here.
The Office of Government Information Services will hold its annual public meeting on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. Registration information and meeting materials are available here.
Are Non-Profit Organizations’ Records Requests Ruining FOIA?
By Bernard Bell, Yale J. on Reg., June 19, 2022
Court dockets in this district overflow with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) matters. Many of those cases seek reams of records, requiring massive efforts from defendant agencies. . . . This is the system Congress hath wrought. And which this Court must dutifully implement.”
American Center for Law and Justice v. DHS, Dkt. No. 21-1364 (D.D.C. Nov. 10, 2021)(McFadden, J.).
In American Center for Law and Justice v. Department of Homeland Security, — F. Supp. 3d —, 2021 WL 5231939 (D.D.C. Nov. 10, 2021), a seemingly run-of-the-mill Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) case, D.C. District Judge Trevor McFadden offered a provocative assessment of FOIA. “Mismatched incentives,” he observed, encourage nonprofit FOIA requesters to make excessively broad requests and bring excessive litigation. And given the advent of email, he continued, the short time period agencies have to provide records is hopelessly out of date. Judge McFadden’s critique may be echoed by other judges, the Department of Justice, or members of Congress.
Read more here.
June 16, 2022
Vidal-Martinez v. ICE (N.D. Ill.) -- concluding after in camera review that agency properly invoked Exemptions 5, 6, and 7(C) to withhold records concerning plaintiff’s detention and rejecting plaintiff’s contention that alleged government impropriety undermined its withholding claims.
June 15, 2022
Ecological Rights Found. v. EPA (N.D. Cal.) -- finding that EPA properly relied on deliberative process, attorney-client, and attorney work-product privileges to withhold eight categories of disputed records concerning a 2019 Department of Justice memo concerning EPA’s use of “Supplemental Environmental Projects” in settlement agreements.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
FOIA Reform We Don’t Need: Blocking Foreigners From Using FOIA
By Mike Masnick Techdirt, June 15, 2022
The US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) system needs plenty of useful reforms to actually work correctly and properly. Despite limited time frames in which the government is required to provide information, they often take years. They regularly redact stuff they shouldn’t. Or refuse to hand over documents they are required to. Generally speaking, the government is not a fan of the kind of transparency that is not just required under the law, but necessary for a functioning government that the public trusts.
Of course, rather than fix any of that… we now have Senators Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, both of whom have been overshadowed by the bigger, louder, more ridiculous culture warriors in their party, planning to limit FOIA requests only to American citizens, permanent residents and US companies.
Read more here.
On June 28, 2022, the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s FOIA staff will hold a public roundtable discussion “to explore common issues arising with FOIA requests. This roundtable will focus on the CPSC FOIA Office’s intake process, including the method for submission, the scope of the request, the agency’s subject matter jurisdiction, fee categories, requests for expedited processing, essential elements of a perfected FOIA request, clarification process, timing, and how requests can be formulated to facilitate the Office’s searches for responsive records.”
More details available here.