FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee meeting Dec. 1, 2022

The FOIA Advisory Committee will meet remotely on Thursday, December 1, 2022, from 10am to 12:30pm. Meeting materials and registration details are available here.

Court opinions issued Nov. 21, 2022

Clemente v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- granting FBI’s unopposed motion for summary judgment after finding that: (1) FBI performed adequate search for records related to Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged criminal activities; and (2) FBI properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 1, 3, 5, 7(A), 7(C), 7(D), and 7(E), and that it also properly withheld records previously sealed by court order.

Dalal v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- in case concerning records of plaintiff’s antisemitic crimes, ruling that: (1) FBI’s search was not entirely adequate because it failed to explain why it would be unduly burdensome to search Special Agent’s informant files; (2) FBI properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 1, 3, 7(C), 7(D), 7(E), and Exemption 5’s attorney work-product and attorney-client privileges, but it improperly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege and Exemption 7(A); (3) EOUSA conducted an adequate search, properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 3 and attorney work-product privilege, and failed to show that Exemption 7(C) protected a search warrant application in full; and (3) FEMA conducted an adequate search, properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 6, and failed to establish the applicability of Exemption 7(E).

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

Court opinion issued Nov. 18, 2022

Nat'l Ass'n of Minority Veterans v. U.S. Dep't of Veterans Affairs (D.D.C.) -- ruling that correspondence between the parties after litigation commenced concerning the scope of plaintiff’s request was not an improper attempt by plaintiff to expand request, and therefore the agency was required to justify the withholdings that it had made in the course of processing plaintiff’s modified request.

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

FOIA News: DOJ unveils redesigned website for OIP

The Office of Information Policy has an updated website as of November 15, 2022, which includes a version in Spanish.

FOIA News: Trouble at the Park Service?

Park Service Lack of Transparency Created Its Huge FOIA Backlog

By Jeff Ruch, Pub. Employees for Envtl. Responsibility, Nov. 18, 2022

The National Park Service is drowning in unanswered Freedom of Information Act requests. According to the Interior Department’s latest quarterly report, NPS led all other Interior agencies in both new requests and in its backlog of 1,421 unprocessed requests.

This backlog has nearly doubled during the past two years while both the number of requests the Park Service received and its backlog continue to spiral up with each passing month.

By contrast, the Fish & Wildlife Service, which manages more than 500 wildlife refuges and has significant regulatory and enforcement responsibilities (e.g., administering the Endangered Species Act), currently has a backlog of only 347 requests, less than a quarter that of NPS, and that backlog is shrinking while the Park Service’s continues to swell.

What explains the difference?

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA tech talk on Dec. 1st

The America Society of Access Professionals will host a virtual discussion about FOIA technology on December 1, 2022, from 3pm to 4:15pm. Participants include Glenn Melcher, CFPB; Michael Sarich, Department of Veterans Affairs; and Nick Witeenberg, Deloitte. Registration details are here.

FOIA News: FEC pays $23.5k to settle FOIA suit with Senator Hawley's campaign

On November 17, 2022, the Federal Election Committee announced that it had agreed to pay $23.5 in attorney’s fees to settle a FOIA lawsuit brought by Senator Josh Hawley’s campaign in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The “plaintiff had a right to the requested documents under FOIA, and the Commission was wrong to try to withhold them,” stated Commissioner Sean Cooksey. Hawley’s campaign had sought records related to FEC enforcement actions against it. Related court documents are available here.

FOIA News: More updates to OIP's FOIA Guide

The Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy has recently published updates to several sections of its Guide to the Freedom of Information Act: (1) Exemption 7(D)​ (posted Sept. 9, 2022); (2) Attorney Fees (updated Oct. 14, 2022); and (3) Exemption 7(E)​ (posted Oct. 27, 2022). The oldest section of the Guide is “Litigation Considerations,” which has not been updated since September 2019.

FOIA News: EPA proposes amendments to FOIA regulations

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a proposed rule that would revise its Freedom of Information Act regulations. Of note, EPA has proposed adding a provision that would permit the expedition of FOIA requests “if the records sought pertain to an environmental justice-related need and will be used to inform an affected community.”

Comments must be received on or before December 19, 2022.

FOIA News: The FOIA wizard

DOJ looks to improve the FOIA experience with new ‘wizard’

A new FOIA search tool is under development, while forthcoming shared business standards aim to streamline case management systems.

By Natalie Alms FCW, Nov. 10, 2022

The Department of Justice is creating a wizard to help Americans making requests under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.

The project is meant to help people locate any information that is already public, and in the case that a FOIA request is still needed, help them make better requests, said Bobak Talebian, director of the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy, during the Chief FOIA Officers Council meeting on Nov. 3.  

Read more here.