Court opinion issued Oct. 12, 2025

Buckley v. DOJ (2nd Cir.) (unpublished) — affirming district court’s decision that: (1) the FBI properly relied on Exemptions 7(D) and 7(E) to withhold records concerning their domestic terrorism investigation of plaintiff-appellant, which concluded without charges, and (2) plaintiff-appellant was ineligible for attorneys’ fees. The Court rejected the argument that Exemption 7 was inapplicable because the records were allegedly compiled for “political reasons,” explaining that circuit precedent requires courts to presume that all investigatory records from law enforcement agencies are compiled for a law enforcement purpose. On fees, the court held that plaintiff-appellant failed to show he was a prevailing party under the catalyst theory. Notably, he failed to raise an argument in district court that earlier-submitted release forms supported his catalyst claim, thus precluding the Court from considering it on appeal.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.

FOIA News: Mini-conference with FOIA

On October 27, 2025, the Simmons Center for Information Literacy at Simmons University will host a three-hour, interactive mini-conference entitled “Information is Power: The First Amendment, Public Records, and the Press.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Beryl Lipton will lead a FOIA discussion in which participants learn “how to file a FOIA request like a pro.”

See more details here.

Court opinions issued Oct. 10, 2025

Informed Consent Action Network v. Ctrs. for Disease Control & Prevention (D.D.C.) — in a case involving access to records about COVID-19 vaccines, denying the requester’s fee motion on entitlement grounds; noting the parties agree that the requester is “eligible” to receive attorney’s fees; explaining that of the four factors to be considered when determining entitlement to a fee award, “the first three . . . weigh slightly in plaintiff’s factor,” but the fourth—i.e., the “reasonableness of the agency’s withholding”—”weighs heavily against plaintiff”; with respect to the fourth factor, concluding the agency’s application of Exemption 6 to withhold the names of CDC personnel was reasonable in light of a perceived “palpable threat” to employee privacy, and danger of harassment, at the time the request was submitted, and an assessment that the asserted public interest in disclosure was minimal.

Popov. v. Dep’t of Homeland Sec. (9th Cir.) (unpublished) — affirming district court’s decision that DHS properly withheld a third party’s Alien File under Exemption 6, noting that plaintiff-appellant failed to substantiate his allegations that the third party had committed any fraud or crimes or that DHS had acted improperly.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.

FOIA News: Shutdown slows down FOIA responses

Transparency takes a hit during shutdown

Public records responses and open government websites are anticipated to stall, if not outright stop, during the lapse in funding.

By Kevin Bogardus, Greenwire, Oct. 10, 2025

Federal agencies’ regular online disclosure and routine management of the Freedom of the Information Act are expected to fade as the government shutdown lingers on.

Reviewing and redacting documents takes staff, many of whom are the first to be furloughed during a funding lapse. And as more federal employees get sent home, government websites grow glitchy and public records requests gather dust, creating an increasing pile of work that civil servants will have to slog through when they’re back on the job.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Oct. 9, 2025

Egana v. U.S. Dep't of Treasury (W.D.N.C.) -- deciding that the Bureau of Fiscal Service performed a reasonable search for records—and found none—related to a $10,000 Series E savings bond allegedly issued in 1964 in plaintiff’s name or under a custodian, claiming entitlement to over $91,000 in value.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.

Court opinion issued Oct. 8, 2025

N.Y. Times Co. v. U.S. Def. Counterintelligence & Sec. Agency (S.D.N.Y.) — denying the government’s motion for summary judgment and ordering the release of a “single, two-page document listing any security clearances granted to Elon Musk”; rejecting the agency’s invocation of Exemptions 6 and 7(C); with respect to Exemption 6, concluding that “substantial public interests in disclosure” outweigh Mr. Musk’s valid, albeit “limited,” privacy interests; noting Mr. Musk’s past history of “publicly discuss[ing] his drug use, NASA’s requirement that he submit to random drug testing . . . , and his contacts with foreign leaders”; explaining that the public interest in disclosure is particularly strong for two reasons, namely, (1) “the public has an interest in knowing whether the leader of SpaceX and Starlink holds the appropriate security clearances,” and (2) because “courts have repeatedly recognized a public interest in understanding the thoroughness, fairness, and accuracy of government investigations and operations”; with respect to Exemption 7(C), bypassing the threshold inquiry of whether the record at issue was “compiled for law enforcement purposes,” and holding that the balancing inquiry favors disclosure.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.

Court opinion issued Oct. 7, 2025

Dahlstrom v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- granting summary judgment to government after finding that USCIS performed a reasonable search for records about the “T visa” program; rejecting plaintiffs’ arguments that the agency’s search was deficient due to a narrow interpretation of the request, failing to search certain databases, and not using search terms and/or keywords preferred by plaintiffs.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.

Court opinion issued Oct. 6, 2025

Ferguson v. DOJ (N.D. Ill.) -- determining that DOJ performed an adequate search for records related to the Prison Rape Elimination Act and the Justice for all Reauthorization Act, and that it properly withheld records under Exemptions 4, 5, and 6; noting that pro se plaintiff failed to follow local rules for filing a summary judgment motion—a deficiency that was itself fatal—but nevertheless proceeding to consider the merits and finding that plaintiff presented no evidence to contradict the government’s showing.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2025 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2024 and from 2015 to 2023.

FOIA News: More on NARA's 2024 records management report

Agencies Increasingly Applying AI in Processing FOIA Requests, Says Report

FEDweek, Oct. 6, 2025

Almost a fifth of federal entities that process FOIA requests are using AI and machine learning, and those “early adopters are demonstrating the ability of AI to identify sensitive information and normalizing the concept of AI in FOIA processing,” says a report.

That is a “notable” number as agencies are looking to apply AI improve efficiency in searching for and retrieving records that may be responsive to FOIA requests, said the report based on responses from some 280 federal entities to a survey earlier this year on their FOIA compliance activities.

Read more here.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Two peas in a pod

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Def./DLA, GS 9-12, multiple locations, closes 10/6/25 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Homeland Sec./USCIS, GS 12, remote, closes 12/31/25 (non-public).