FOIA News: FOIAonline's demise

EPA shutters public records portal

Heralded as a step for open government when it launched, FOIAonline, in service for more than a decade across agencies, will be decommissioned later this year.

By Kevin Bogardus, Greenwire, Feb. 13, 2023

EPA will shutter FOIAonline, the public records web portal it manages, ending what was once a promising stride toward transparency taken more than 10 years ago.

The website tracks Freedom of Information Act requests across multiple federal agencies and posts records online for all to see. Heralded as a step for open government when it launched, FOIAonline has since faced departing user agencies and rising costs that could have saddled EPA alone with an expensive web application that was increasingly difficult to use.

Now, it will be decommissioned Sept. 30, according to the website itself. Those who follow FOIA wonder what will come next.

Gbemende Johnson, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, said, “It is a loss of a valuable resource."

She explained requesters can chase records from individual agencies' web portals, costing time and resources, but FOIAonline simplified the process and made it easier for those requesting information from certain agencies.

Read more here (subscription required)

[The author of this post is quoted in the article]

FOIA News: Even more annual reports

On January 24, 2023, and January 31, 2023, we posted a total of 36 annual FOIA reports for fiscal year 2022. Below are several more reports that we have since located. All agencies must post their reports online by March 1, 2023.

• U.S. Department of Commerce -- 1768 requests received; 1774 requests processed

• Consumer Financial Protect Bureau -- collected no FOIA fees despite significant percentage of commercial use requesters

• Presidio Trust -- only 9 requests received

• Office of Science and Technology Policy -- fulfilled only 65 of 104 requests received

• National Mediation Board -- only 20 requests received

Court opinion issued Feb. 10, 2023

Hooker v. U.S. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs (M.D. Fla.) -- granting agency’s summary judgment motion after finding that agency had properly withheld records pertaining to plaintiff pursuant to Exemption 7(A) and then released all requested records after its law enforcement proceeding against plaintiff had closed.

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

FOIA News: Upcoming FOIA workshop

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is hosting a virtual “Student Press Freedom Day FOIA Workshop” on February 23, 2023. Details available here.

Court opinion issued Feb. 8, 2023

Ghassan v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- dismissing case because plaintiff failed to show that he actually submitted requests to FBI for records concerning alleged court-ordered assassination program, and FBI averred that it had never received them and sufficiently explained agency’s search process.

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

FOIA News: New FOIA regulations issued

The Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, formerly housed within OMB and now a stand-alone component of the Executive Office of the President, has issued its final FOIA regulations following a public comment period. The regulations are effective March 10, 2023.

FOIA News: Gov't defends Glomar response re Trump's alleged declassification order

Gov't Seeks Toss Of FOIA Suit Over Trump Docs Tied To Raid

By Ivan Moreno, Law360, Feb. 7, 2023

The U. S. government asked a Massachusetts federal judge to toss a lawsuit seeking records regarding former President Donald Trump's purported standing declassification order for documents he took from the Oval Office, saying merely acknowledging whether such materials exist would compromise an ongoing investigation. . . .

Read more here (access with free trial subscription)

A copy of the complaint in ACLU v. CIA, No, 22-cv-11532 (D. Mass) is here.

Court opinions issued Feb. 6, 2023

Adams v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- on renewed summary judgment, ruling that CIA properly relied on Exemption 1 and 3 in refusing to confirm or deny the existence of records pertaining to plaintiff in its classified databases.

WP Co. v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- determining that plaintiff was eligible for and entitled to attorney’s fees and costs in case concerning agency payments to Donal Trump-owned properties, but reducing requested award from $91k requested to $55k for excessive and unproductive hours billed.

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

FOIA News: Yale Journal on Regulation Highlights D.C. Circuit FOIA Decision

D.C. Circuit Review - Reviewed: Who Needs Deference?

Yale J. on Reg., Notice & Comment, Feb. 6, 2023

[. . .] Last, but certainly not least for those who support access to government information: The court rejected (for now) the government’s attempt to withhold certain records related to its procurement of pentobarbital for lethal injections. In brief, the main issue before the court in Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. DOJ, No. 21-5276 (D.C. Cir. Jan. 31, 2023), was whether the suppliers’ names and certain contract terms (like the drugs’ prices and quantities, unconnected to supplier names) qualified under Exemption 4, which covers trade secrets and confidential commercial information. With Judge Pillard writing (joined by Judge Childs), the court held that the government had not shown (at the summary judgment stage) that the names themselves were “commercial” (though the parties agreed the names were confidential) or that the contract terms were confidential because their disclosure would necessarily reveal the suppliers’ names. The government gets an opportunity to try again on remand. Judge Sentelle concurred in the judgment, agreeing that the government had not yet met its burden, but expressing some skepticism of the panel’s interpretation of the word “commercial.”

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Feb. 3, 2023

Brody v. DOJ (D.C. Cir.) (unpublished) -- less than two weeks after oral argument, affirming district court’s decision that appellant’s requests to FBI required unduly burdensome searches.

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