Biear v. Attorney Gen. (3rd Cir.) (per curiam) -- affirming district court’s decision to deny pro se requester’s motion to reopen FOIA case and concluding that that FBI and Criminal Division complied with district court’s orders to release supplemental information material.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.
Libarov v. ICE (7th Cir.) -- affirming district court’s decision and holding that: (1) requester was not entitled to a declaratory judgment that ICE violated FOIA for missing statutory response deadline; (2) district court did not clearly err in ruling—after in camera review—that Exemption 7(A) protected investigatory information concerning requester’s sham marriage; and (3) requester could not maintain an Administrative Procedure Act claim against ICE for an alleged policy of delaying FOIA responses, because FOIA provided an adequate remedy.
Alper v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) FBI could not rely on Exemption 7(A) to withhold in full all records concerning plaintiff, a death-row inmate who murdered a sheriff’s deputy in 1995, because agency failed to show how disclosure of records would compromise government’s position at two pending enforcement proceedings; (2) FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(C) to withhold identities of FBI personnel, other law enforcement personnel, and civilian third parties; (3) FBI did not show that Exemption 7(D) protected information about cooperative efforts provided by a foreign law enforcement agency more than 30 years ago; (4) FBI properly invoked Exemption 7(E) to withheld identities of investigative databases it used, but a discrepancy with agency’s Vaughn Index precluded use of same exemption to withhold documents requesting assistance from foreign law enforcement agency; and (5) FBI properly invoked Exemption 5’s attorney-client privilege to withhold communications between DOJ counsel and an FBI special agent regarding legal guidance.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.
US Supreme Court temporarily halts access sought by watchdog group to DOGE records
Watchdog group sought records on DOGE's operations
Lower court found DOGE is likely subject to FOIA law
By Andrew Chung, Reuters, May 23, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily paused judicial orders requiring the Department of Government Efficiency, established by President Donald Trump and spearheaded by his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, to turn over records and answer questions in the coming days and weeks concerning its operations.
The court put on hold Washington-based U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper's orders for DOGE to respond to a government watchdog group's requests for information after finding that DOGE likely is a government agency covered by the federal Freedom of Information Act.
Read more here.
In a memo sent to agencies on May 20, 2025, the Office of Government Information Services asked Chief FOIA Officers and FOIA Officers to update their contact information in the directory of FOIA.gov, which is maintained by DOJ’s Office of Information Policy. The memo was prompted by the likelihood of “a number of staffing changes . . . in FOIA programs this year.” Those changes prominently include the dismissal of OIP’s director in March.
The Office of Government Information Services published its annual report to Congress on May 21, 2025. Highlights included handling 6,057 cases and closing 6,098 — with 88.5% initiated in 10 days and 98.9% resolved within 90 days. The agency’s Open Annual Meeting will take place on July 23, 2025.
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to keep DOGE records secret
By Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney, Politico, May 21, 2025
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to block an effort to open the inner workings of the secretive DOGE cost-cutting effort to public scrutiny.
The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal Wednesday urging the high court to put a hold on a judge’s orders giving a watchdog group access to documents detailing firings, grant terminations and other actions proposed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which was overseen by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
Read more here.
The Case of the ‘Lost’ FOIA Requests
By Jason Leopold, Bloomberg, May 21, 2025
If you’ve ever submitted a FOIA request through a federal agency’s public access portal there’s a good chance you’re using an application called FOIAXpress. The software was developed by Opexus, a Washington-based company that provides software services for processing US government records.
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As I reported today, two Opexus employees, twin brothers Suhaib and Muneeb Akhter, compromised or deleted data from Opexus systems, according to an internal investigation and a separate probe by an independent cybersecurity firm. They worked for Opexus for about a year as engineers before being fired earlier this year. It turns out they’d been previously convicted of hacking into the US State Department and had been sentenced to two and three years in prison.
Read more here.
Save the date for the fifth meeting of the National Archives and Records Administration's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2024-2026 Advisory Committee. See more details here.
Fifth Circuit review - Reviewed: Releasing All the Files
By Mikaela Milligan, Yale J. on Reg., Notice & Comment Blog, May 16, 2025
In Texas Public Policy Foundation v. United States Department of State, the Fifth Circuit held that the State Department must disclose the names and email addresses of rank-and-file employees pursuant to a FOIA request. The opinion, written by Judge Wilson, forces the Trump Administration to choose whether to take its pitch to the Supreme Court. Will the Trump Administration maintain its view that the public is not entitled to the details of certain Biden Administration deliberations—or will it let this one go? Only time will tell.
Read the full article here.
By Samantha-Jo Roth, Wash. Exam’r, May 18, 2025
Staffing cuts to public records teams under the Trump administration have raised concerns about the federal government’s ability to respond to information requests and maintain accountability.
President Donald Trump has frequently claimed his administration is the “most transparent in history.” But several agencies have come under scrutiny after the elimination of entire offices responsible for Freedom of Information Act requests that already faced persistent backlogs.
Read more here.