FOIA News: D.C. Circuit argument on Feb. 14, 2024

On February 14, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear oral argument in Cabezas v, FBI, No. 22-5170. A livestream is available here.

The lower court’s decision is here.

Court opinion issued Feb. 12, 2024

Inst. for Energy Research v. FERC (D.D.C.) -- holding that: (1) FERC conducted an adequate search for calendars of two Commissioners; (2) with respect to FERC’s deliberative process privilege claims, the agency “failed to provide any details or explanation as to why each (or any) of the policy proposals, internal meetings, and external meetings redacted from the calendar concern predecisional material or what sort of “definable decision-making process” the agency aims to protect”; and (3) FERC properly withheld some records pursuant to Exemption 6, but it did not justify withholding the name of a lobbyist who met with a Commissioner or the names of “lower-level staff” on a categorical basis.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

Court opinion issued Feb. 7, 2024

Feb. 7, 2024

Bahrampour v. Nat'l Sec. Agency (D. Md.) -- ruling that: (1) NSA properly relied on Exemptions 1 and 3 in refusing to confirm or deny whether it maintained intelligence records about plaintiff; and (2) plaintiff failed to reasonably describe his request for 50 year’s worth of five categories of records unrelated to agency’s work, such as electromagnetic radiation and microwave pulses.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

FOIA News: FOIA and eDiscovery

In case you’ve missed it, the blog “eDiscovery Today” is running a five-part article entitled “Processing Freedom of Information Act Requests and Utilizing eDiscovery.” The co-authors are Michael Sarich, the Director of FOIA at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, and Nicholas Wittenberg, Corporate Counsel and Senior Advisor for Legal Technology and Innovation at Armedia.

Part 1 , Feb. 5, 2024.

Part 2, Feb. 7, 2024.

Part 3, Feb. 9, 2024.

Part 4 , Feb. 12, 2024.

FOIA News: More FY 2023 FOIA reports

The March 1st deadline for agencies to post their annual reports is quickly approaching. Here are reports that we’ve located since we last posted on February 4th.

• Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency

• Department of Education (2816 requests received; 2385 processed)

• Federal Reserve Board

• Millennium Challenge Corporation

• Postal Regulatory Commission

Here are the reports we posted on January 31st and Feb. 4th:

Jan. 31, 2024

• Commission on Civil Rights

• Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency

• Commodities Future Trading Commission

• Farm Credit Administration

• Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation

• Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission

• Federal Energy Regulation Commission

• Merit Systems Protection Board

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• Nuclear Regulatory Commission

• Office of Government Ethics

• Peace Corps

• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

• Securities and Exchange Commission (9481 requests received; 9022 processed)

• U.S. Postal Service (4168 requests received; 4104 processed)

• U.S. Trade Representative

Feb. 4, 2024

• American Battle Monuments Commission

• Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (197 requests received; only 61 processed).

• Department of Housing and Urban Development

• Federal Election Commission

• National Mediation Board

• Office of Management and Budget

• Social Security Administration (10130 requests received; 10305 processed)

• U.S. Agency for International Development

• U.S. Railroad and Retirement Board

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Weekly posting 2/12/24

The federal positions listed below are open to the public unless indicated otherwise.

Federal positions closing in next 10 days

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Transp./FAA, multiple locations, FV 1, closes 2/13/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Transp./FAA, multiple locations, FV 1, closes 2/13/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Envtl. Prot. Agency, multiple locations, GS 13, closes 2/13/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Gen. Serv. Admin., location negotiable, GS 12-13, closes 2/15/24.

Supervisory Att’y Advisor, Dep’t of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, D.C., GS 15, closes 2/16/24.

Att’y Advisor, Dep’t of Justice, OIP, Washington, D.C., GS 12-14, closes 2/19/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, Illinois, GS-12, closes 2/19/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VBA, Overland, MO, GS 13, closes 2/20/24 (non-public).

Att’y-Advisor, Dep’t of the Interior/Solicitor, Washington, D.C., GS 12-14, closes 2/21/24.

Supervisory Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Def./Army, Fort Belvoir, VA, GS 14, closes 2/21/24 (non-public).

Federal positions announced in past 7 days and closing after 2/22/24

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Ed./Sec’y, Washington, D.C., GS-13, closes 2/27/24 (non-public).

Private sector positions

Manager, FOIA Programs, OPEXUS (formerly AINS, LLC), Washington, D.C., salary and closing date not indicated.

Jobs, job, jobs: Attorney needed for FOIA in El Paso, Texas

The International Boundary and Water Commission: United States and Mexico has a vacancy for an Attorney-Advisor in El Paso, Texas to administer its FOIA program and assists with its ethics and privacy programs. The deadline to apply is Feb. 12, 2024.

FOIA News: FBI releases list of "serial filers," aka "vexsome" requesters

FBI Issues Redacted ‘Vexsome Filer’ List, Marking Departure from Past Transparency Practices

By John Greenwald, Black Vault, Feb. 7, 2024

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has recently released a significantly redacted version of its latest ‘Vexsome Filer’ list, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by The Black Vault on August 7, 2023, under FBI FOIA case number 1600755-000. Initially, the request was met with a response stating no records existed. This prompted an appeal, case A-2023-01949, wherein the Department of Justice (DOJ) remanded the request, leading to the release of this latest, albeit heavily redacted, document.

Read more here.

In response to the FBI’s disclosure, the Cato Institute—the only requester whose name was not redacted— claimed it was a badge of honor.

Court opinion issued Feb. 5, 2024

Frost Brown Todd LLC v. Ctr. for Medicare & Medicaid Serv. (D.D.C.) -- deciding that: (1) of six requests, only the portion of one request reasonably described the records sought, resulting in dismissal of all claims based on the deficient requests; rejecting plaintiff’s arguments that two agency regulations precluded dismissal; and (2) plaintiff’s allegation that CMS had a pattern or practice of unreasonably delaying the release of non-exempt documents was sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

FOIA News: DOJ IG launches new reading room

The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector Justice launched a new FOIA reading room on February 5, 2024., which contains “categories of documents of public interest released between 2020 and 2022 in response to FOIA requests to the OIG. Additional documents will be added periodically after they are released in response to FOIA requests.” Documents from 2023 will be added “at a future date.”