Monthly roundup: October 2025

Below is a summary of the notable FOIA court decisions and news from last month, as well as a look ahead to FOIA events in November.

Court opinions

We posted and summarized 15 opinions in October—a sharp decline from 29 last month. The most significant ruling was the D.C. Circuit’s decision in Campaign for Accountability v. DOJ (Oct. 17), which held that opinions of the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel are not subject to FOIA’s “reading-room” disclosure requirements. The court reasoned that such opinions are neither “final opinions made in the adjudication of cases” nor “statements of policy or interpretations adopted by the agency,” but rather are best understood as confidential legal advice provided to executive branch agencies. A concurring opinion argued that plaintiff-appellee lacked standing because it failed to show that disclosure of the OLC opinions would likely redress any concrete informational injury.

Top news

• A lapse in appropriations on October 1, 2025, effectively suspended many FOIA operations and litigation.

• EPA plans to rescind expedited processing regulation for “environmental justice,” per E&E News.

November calendar (these events may be affected by the partial government shutdown)

Nov. 5: DOJ/OIP Virtual Introduction to the Freedom of Information Act

Nov. 12: DOJ/OIP Virtual Litigation Seminar

Nov. 12: Agency Annual FOIA Reports due to OIP for Review

Court opinion issued Oct. 31, 2025

William & Connolly v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- concluding that ICE conducted an adequate search for records related to individuals involved in a sanctions evasion case in the Southern District of New York, and that CBP and USCIS properly withheld records pursuant to FOIA Exemptions 6 and 7(C) and met the statute’s foreseeable harm and segregability requirements. 

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. 29, 2025

Ecological Rights Found. v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng'rs (N.D. Cal.) -- on motion for attorney’s fees and costs, ruling that: (1) plaintiff was ineligible for an award against the National Marine Fisheries Service because the agency had issued determinations before the lawsuit was filed; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that NMFS’s referral of certain records negated a final determination, finding instead that the referral constituted a constructive withholding subject to administrative appeal; (2) alternatively, plaintiff was not a prevailing party against NMFS as the lawsuit did not prompt the agency to alter its position or disclose additional responsive records; (3) plaintiff was eligible for an award against USACE because its lawsuit served as a catalyst for the agency’s additional searches, record releases, and agreement to produce documents in native format with metadata; and (4) plaintiff was entitled to an award bases on traditional four-factor test, but reducing requested amount to exclude time spent on unsuccessful claims and excessive or duplicative billing.

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

FOIA News: FOIA-shadowing for John Bolton

FOIA Requests Presaged Trouble for Trump Nemesis Bolton

By John A. Jenkins, Law St. Media, Oct. 29, 2025

When the Justice Department unsealed its indictment of John R. Bolton two weeks ago, it wasn’t the first time his name had surfaced in government files.

Long before prosecutors accused the former national security adviser and Donald Trump nemesis of mishandling classified information, Bolton had already become the subject of a flurry of Freedom of Information Act requests — filings that hinted at the controversies still shadowing him years after he left the White House. 

Unnamed requesters as well as the corporate intermediary Cogency Global sought records about Bolton’s behind-the-scenes diplomacy and dealings:  his contacts with Attorney General William Barr, his efforts to block a Chinese takeover of a Ukrainian aerospace firm, even the government’s internal emails about a Justice Department tweet disparaging Bolton in 2020.

Read more here

Court opinion issued Oct. 24, 2025

New Orleans Navy Housing v. U.S. Dep’t of the Navy (E.D. La.) -- on renewed summary judgment, ruling that the Navy properly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process and attorney–client privileges, met the statute’s foreseeable harm requirement, conducted an adequate segregability analysis, and that in camera review was unnecessary given the agency’s supplemental submissions.

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. 23, 2025

Levitt v. IRS (N.D. Ala.) -- dismissing case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction because plaintiff lacked Article III standing, having submitted the FOIA request on behalf of his client while filing the lawsuit in his personal capacity.

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

FOIA News: New FOIA Podcast, "Disclosure," to Debut

Bloomberg and No Smiling Announce the Launch of New Podcast Series, Disclosure

Bloomberg Media (Oct. 23, 2025)

New York, NY – October 23, 2025 – Bloomberg, in partnership with No Smiling, today announced the launch of Disclosure, a new podcast series exploring the pursuit of government records – and the stories they tell. The show premieres October 28 across all major podcast platforms, with early access to episodes for Bloomberg subscribers. Listen to the trailer here.

Disclosure is hosted by Bloomberg News investigative reporter Jason Leopold and First Amendment attorney Matt Topic, leading experts on using public records laws to uncover government documents. Each week, they give listeners a behind-the-scenes look at how the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state public records laws can be used to inform the public about what their government is up to and how their taxpayer dollars are being spent.

From Russian pranksters who duped a top government official to reports of documents allegedly flushed down White House toilets and the government’s sale of a coveted Rap album, Disclosure will reveal the obstacles Leopold and Topic face and the unexpected stories that surface once those records are released.

The first episode of Disclosure will debut on all major podcast platforms on October 28, with new episodes released weekly on Tuesdays. Bloomberg subscribers get early access to all subsequent episodes.

Bloomberg produces more than 30 podcasts, delivering smart analysis, timely insights, and compelling storytelling across business, finance, economics, politics, technology, healthcare, sports, and more. Bloomberg podcasts are distributed by iHeartPodcasts and are available on the Bloomberg app, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever podcasts are heard.

Leopold also writes the Bloomberg newsletter FOIA Files, where he takes readers behind the scenes of his reporting to share interesting documents never seen before. Subscribe here.

About Bloomberg Media
Bloomberg Media is the world’s leading multi-platform media company for business and finance, which draws on the editorial resources of more than 3,000 journalists and analysts in more than 100 bureaus around the world. Bloomberg Media is the consumer-facing media organization of Bloomberg L.P.

Read the full press release here.

Court opinion issued Oct. 22, 2025

Malik v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- on renewed summary judgment, concluding that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services properly relied on Exemptions 7(E) and 7(C) to redact a “Memo for the Record” concerning plaintiff’s application for employment with the agency; noting that the agency’s supplemental declaration explained that the memo in question discussed the Office of Personnel Management's background investigation of plaintiff, which qualified as a law enforcement purpose under Exemption 7.

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

FOIA News: This and that

• Tips for filing FOIA requests during a government shutdown, by Lauren Harper, Freedom of the Press Foundation.

• What Does a Government Shutdown Mean for FOIA?, by Rachel Santarsiero, Nat’l Sec. Archive.

• Professor Dru Stevenson at the South Texas College of Law has produced a series of FOIA videos on YouTube as part of his Administrative Law course. Here are videos for Exemption 1; Exemption 2; Exemption 3; Exemption 4; Exemption 5; Exemption 6; Exemption 7; Exemption 8; and Exemption 9; and Glomar responses.

• The Yale Journal on Regulation briefly discusses the D.C. Circuit’s recent reading-room decision, Campaign for Accountability v. DOJ.

Court opinions issued Oct. 17, 2025

Campaign for Accountability v. DOJ (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming in part and reversing in part the district court’s decision and holding that Office of Legal Counsel’s (OLC) opinions are not subject to FOIA’s “reading-room” disclosure requirements because they are not “final opinions made in the adjudication of cases” nor “statements of policy or interpretations adopted by the agency; vacating the district court’s order requiring disclosure of OLC opinions resolving interagency disputes, reasoning that OLC opinions offer prospective legal advice, not binding orders or adjudications, and therefore do not resolve “cases” or have determinate consequences; noting that although OLC’s opinions are considered authoritative within the Executive Branch, they are not automatically adopted as the “working law” of client agencies unless an agency actually implements them as its own; in a concurring opinion, Judge Rao emphasized that appellant lacked standing because its claims were a generalized grievance without a particularized injury or concrete harm.

Husch Blackwell LLP v. Dep’t of Commerce (D.D.C.) -- in a case concerning records on how and why the Bureau of Industry and Security added certain companies to the “Entity List,” which restricts exports to foreign entities for national security reasons, ruling that: (1) BIS had not justified its withholding under Exemption 1, because its declarations merely repeated classification language without explaining how disclosure would harm national security; and (2) although the Export Control Reform Act qualifies as an Exemption 3 statute, BIS failed to show that withheld memoranda fit within the Ac’s enumerated or closely related categories.

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