Court opinions issued Sept. 19, 2022

Leopold v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- holding that Exemption 8 protected in full an independent monitor’s 1,000-page compliance report concerning HSBC and that no non-exempt information could be reasonably segregated and released, including “background information or a table of contents.”

Kuzma v. DOJ (W.D.N.Y.) -- (1) adopting magistrate judge’s report and recommendation that FBI performed adequate search and properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 7(D) and 7(E); (2) rejecting magistrate’s finding that FBI improperly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) and ruling that FBI made reasonable effort to ascertain whether individuals whose names were withheld were still alive; and (3) rejecting magistrate’s conclusion that plaintiff’s entitlement to attorney’s fees was limited to the timeframe in which the Complaint was filed through FBI’s first release of records.

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

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee is off and running

FOIA Advisory Committee Organizes into Three Subcommittees

By Kimberlee Ried, FOIA Ombudsman, Sept. 19, 2022

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee shared information and heard ideas from previous Committee terms to organize itself into three subcommittees for the 2022-2024 term. 

Each subcommittee is led by two co-chairs, one of whom is a federal employee, the other a representative from the requester community. The subcommittees will do much of the work of the Committee, which consists of 20 FOIA experts — 10 government FOIA professionals and 10 requester community representatives appointed by Acting Archivist of the United States Debra Steidel Wall.  

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Sept. 16, 2022

Ctr. for Immigration Studies v. USCIS (D.D.C.) -- holding that plaintiff’s request seeking all emails sent and received by three senior officials over a nine-month period —a total of 1.6 million pages—was unduly burdensome and need not be processed.

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 15, 2022

Franklin v. United States (5th Cir.) -- in relevant part, deciding that district court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiff attorneys’ fees because “the public gains no benefit” from disclosure of records concerning plaintiff’s tax penalties.

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 14, 2022

Hooker v. U.S. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs (D.D.C.) -- dismissing case brought by former Department employee and vexatious litigator after finding that Department performed reasonable search for requested document, which was ultimately produced after plaintiff filed suit.

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

FOIA News: OIP issues FOIA-Privacy Act Guidance

OIP ISSUES GUIDANCE ON FOIA-PRIVACY ACT INTERFACE

DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Sept. 15, 2022

Today, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) published new guidance on the interface between the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act.  This guidance provides practical insight for agency FOIA professionals who process access requests for Privacy Act records.  Both the Privacy Act and FOIA are long-established mechanisms for individuals to seek access to government records.  The Privacy Act and FOIA can overlap, and it is critical that FOIA professionals understand this interface to make disclosure determinations that provide requesters the full scope of access to which they are entitled under both statutes. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Ruling Yields New Argument For Challenging Exemption 4

FOIA Ruling Yields New Argument For Challenging Exemption

By John McCarthy, Anuj Vohra, and Dan Wolff, Law360, Sept. 14, 2022

Last month, in Seife v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit became the first appellate court to address a significant question regarding Exemption 4 left unanswered by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2019 FOIA decision in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media.

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription).

FOIA News: OIP Releases 2023 Chief FOIA Officer Report Guidelines

New 2023 Chief FOIA Officer Report Guidelines Now Available

Dep’t of Justice, Office of Info. Policy, Sept. 14, 2022

The FOIA requires agency Chief FOIA Officers to report to the Attorney General on their performance in implementing the law.  Accordingly, since 2009, the Department of Justice has directed agency Chief FOIA Officers to “review all aspects of their agencies’ FOIA administration” and to report annually to the Department of Justice on the efforts undertaken “to improve FOIA operations and facilitate information disclosure at their agencies.”  Every year, OIP provides specific guidance to agencies on the content and timing of agency Chief FOIA Officer Reports and today we have issued the guidelines for agency 2023 Chief FOIA Officer Reports. 

In their 2023 Chief FOIA Officer Reports, OIP requires agencies to report steps taken in five key areas of FOIA administration highlighted in the Attorney General’s 2022 FOIA Guidelines:

1. FOIA Leadership and Applying the Presumption of Openness,

2. Ensuring Fair and Effective FOIA Administration,

3. Proactive Disclosures,

4. Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology; and

5. Steps Taken to Remove Barriers to Access, Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests, and Reduce Backlogs.

Read more here.

FOIA News: ATF prevails in case involving Hunter Biden's gun episode

Judge won't force disclosure of records on alleged episode with Hunter Biden's gun

The privacy interests of President Joe Biden's son trump a blogger's Freedom of Information Act suit, the federal court rules.

By Josh Gerstein, Politico, Sept. 13, 2022

A court has rejected a lawsuit seeking to force the public disclosure of federal records about a 2018 episode in which a gun belonging to President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was allegedly thrown in a trash can.

In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras found that the public interest in the handling of any investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into the episode was “significant,” but that the importance of Hunter Biden’s privacy as a private citizen outweighed the value of releasing any such records to the public.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Sept. 13, 2022

Codrea v. ATF (D.D.C.) -- concluding that ATF properly relied on Exemption 7(C) in refusing to confirm or deny existence of agency’s involvement in alleged 2018 gun incident involving Hunter Biden; finding that public interest in agency’s handling of this matter was “significant,” but that it was outweighed by subject’s “remarkably strong” privacy interest.

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