Court opinion issued Jan. 6, 2026

Legal Eagle, LLC v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that plaintiff failed to exhaust its administrative remedies because it neither appealed OIP’s determination that its FOIA request was not reasonably described nor resubmitted a narrowed request; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that no administrative appeal was required, explaining that OIP affirmatively offered both an appeal and an opportunity to reformulate the request, which plaintiff declined; further, dismissing plaintiff’s expedited-processing claim as moot, since OIP had already issued a final response to the FOIA request and there was nothing left to expedite.

Summaries of published opinions issued in 2026 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2025, 2024, and from 2015 to 2023.

FOIA News: Actor John Cusack on FOIA-based reporting

John Cusack Wants to Talk About Paywalls

The movie star says that by selling their public-records-based reporting, news outlets are compromising one of journalism’s essential civic roles.

By Carolina Abbott Galvão, Columbia J. Rev., Jan. 7, 2026

* * *
One of the things you’re particularly interested in at the moment is the Freedom of Information Act, and specifically, ensuring that FOIA-based reporting isn’t kept behind paywalls. Why do you think that’s important? 

There’s an irony in the fact that FOIA-based reporting often ends up behind a paywall, because the public owns government records. We fund their creation through taxes, and we fund the agencies that produce them. We fund the FOIA office that processes the disclosure request—the entire apparatus is built on the premise that this information belongs to us. So when the journalist files a FOIA request, the story is the product of public investment. At any stage, the documents are ours. The disclosure process is ours. The reporters’ access exists only because the law recognizes our right to know. If that story then goes behind a paywall, that right becomes a privilege. 

Now, this is not an argument against paying journalists, or that the realities of the journalism business aren’t fraught. I get that part of it. Newsrooms need to survive. But the news isn’t just a business. It’s enshrined in the First Amendment.

Read more here.

FOIA Commentary: Top FOIA news of 2025

As 2026 gets underway, the FOIA Advisor staff is pleased to provide a summary of the most notable FOIA developments that occurred outside the courtroom in calendar year 2025. We will discuss our top 2025 court decisions in a forthcoming post.

Congress

• On February 6, 2025, Representative Hillary Scholten (D-MI) introduced the Consistent Legal Expectations and Access to Records Act to clarify that FOIA applies to entities established under 5 U.S.C. § 3161, a change aimed at preventing temporary federal organizations—such as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—from avoiding FOIA requests.

• The Senate Judiciary Committee held a FOIA hearing on April 8, 2025. No government witnesses appeared.

• On November 20, 2025, Representative Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM) introduced H.R. 6206, the Protect Culturally Sensitive Information Act, which would create a new FOIA Exemption 3 for culturally sensitive information identified by Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Entities, and Native Hawaiian Organizations.

Regulatory updates

• In spring 2025, The Environmental Protection Agency notified OMB of its intent to rescind its expedited processing regulation related to environmental justice, but it did not develop a proposed rule before the end of the year. America First Legal recently petitioned EPA to move the process forward.

• On June 30, 2025, Amtrak became the first agency to propose amendments to their FOIA regulations since President Trump’s second term began.

• The Defense Nuclear Safety Board followed with proposed amendments on November 24, 2025.

• Lastly, the Department of Homeland Security amended its FOIA regulations on December 23, 2025, requiring requests to be submitted via web portals or FOIA.gov, except for requester without Internet access.

Dep’t of Justice/Office of Info. Policy

• DOJ/OIP issued its annual Litigation and Compliance Report in early March. noting that requesters filed 889 FOIA lawsuits in calendar year 2024—the highest number DOJ has ever reported. Shortly thereafter, OIP reported that nearly 1.5 million requests were submitted across the government in fiscal year 2024, up 25 percent from fiscal year 2023, with DHS alone receiving more than 900,000 requests. On April 29, 2025, DOJ/OIP released a 24-page summary of agency annual reports for FY 2024

• On March 8, 2025, OIP’s Director, Bobak Talebian, was fired along with several other heads of DOJ components. A new Director, Sean Glendening, was appointed on November 3, 2025.

• On July 9, 2025, OIP issued guidance on the disclosure-related impact of President Trump’s Executive Order No. 1303, “Restoring Gold Standard Science.”

Nat’l Archives/Office of Gov’t Info Servs.

On September 26, 2025, OGIS published a compliance report on the Department of Veteran Affairs, making its first such report since 2020. In its annual report published in May 2025, OGIS reported receiving 6057 requests for assistance and closing 6098 requests during FY 2024.

Other agency actions

• The Department of Health and Human Services initiated a department restructuring involving the closure of individual agency FOIA offices—including those at the CDC, FDA, and NIH—and creating a single, centralized FOIA office.

• On August 14, 2025, the Department of Energy issued a notice in the Federal Register requiring requesters who submitted FOIA requests before October 1, 2024 to confirm their interest—as well as the control number assigned to the request—by September 15, 2025, or face administrative closure. DOE cited a tripling of FOIA requests over four years (from 1,300 to over 4,000 annually) and blamed “vexatious requesters and automated bots” for clogging the system. The agency was promptly sued by American Oversight on September 3, 2025.

• One month later, USAID issued a global “still interested” notice on September 16, 2025, requiring requesters to confirm their interest in all FOIA requests submitted to the agency before January 20, 2025.

• In April, DHS stopped using software that automatically captured text messages and saved trails of communication between officials. Instead, the agency began to require officials to manually take screenshots of their messages to comply with federal records laws.

Other FOIA-related matters

• Bloomberg uncovered and reported a wild story in May 2025 about two OPEXUS employees who had tampered with agency FOIA databases in February 2025. Two brothers were later arrested on December 3, 2025.

• A partial government shutdown suspended many agency FOIA operations and FOIA litigation proceedings from October 1, 2025, to November 12, 2025.

• A White House-ordered hiring freeze significantly reduced the number of available FOIA jobs.

• During Sunshine Week, the FBI was named the worst FOIA respondent of the decade by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock, which annually team up to produce a list of agencies that respond poorly to FOIA requests (the “Foilies”).

Monthly roundup: December 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 January.

Court opinions

We posted and summarized 9 opinions in December, the second fewest of the year (after May’s eight). The standout was Am. First Legal Found. v. Roberts (D.D.C. Dec. 18), which held that the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts are not “agencies” under FOIA.

Top news

• DHS amended its FOIA regulations on December 23rd, requiring requests to be submitted via web portals, unless a requester lacks Internet access

• The Chief FOIA Officers Council met on December 15th, which includes updates from OIP, OGIS, and two committees. Presentation slides here.

• On December 3rd, two brothers were arrested for conspiring to destroy government databases after being fired from OPEXUS, a government contractor that helps agencies manage investigations and FOIA requests.

January calendar

Jan. 9: Nat’l Assn. of Legal Assistants FOIA 101 Introduction to the Federal Freedom of Information Act.

Jan. 13: DOJ/OIP Virtual Exemption 4 and Exemption 5 Training.

Jan. 21: DOJ/OIP Virtual Privacy Considerations Training.

Jan. 28: DOJ/OIP Virtual Administrative Appeals, FOIA Compliance, and Customer Service Training.

Jan. 29: D.C. Circuit oral argument in Gun Owners of America v. ATF, No. 25-5309.

Jan. 30: DOJ/OIP FY26 Q1 Data Due.

Court opinion issued Dec. 31, 2025

Skywriter Commc'ns v. U.S. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- holding that: (1) the State Department failed to adequately search for records concerning the 1979 assassination of the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan because it unreasonably limited its search to one bureau despite evidence that responsive records were likely located in other bureaus; and (2) the Department withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 1, 6, 7(C), 7(D), and 7(E), finding them largely proper, except that the Department needed to clarify whether any unclassified material was improperly withheld under Exemption 1.

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 DHS’s new FOIA rule

DHS trades paper FOIA requests for digital filings

Effective next month, the department said the change will increase its workers’ efficiency by speeding up initial data entry and related administrative tasks.

By Lindsey Wilkinson, FEDSCOOP, Dec. 29, 2025

The Department of Homeland Security will require people submitting Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act requests to do so electronically, rather than mailing them in, as directed by a new rule going into effect Jan. 22.

Paper requests can be tedious and time-consuming. The updated procedures are aimed at increasing workers’ efficiency by speeding up the initial data-entry processes and directing more time to searching and reviewing records corresponding to related requests, according to DHS. 

“This rule will not impose any new costs on the government or the public,” the department said in the final rule published last week. “Electronic submission via web portal is also more efficient than using the U.S. Postal Service and allows for better tracking of the submission and quicker response by the Government.”

The agency will consider exceptions in “limited circumstance,” such as for requesters without internet access. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: DHS to requesters: use a portal

On December 23, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security issued a final rule amending its regulations to clarify that Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act requests generally must be submitted through DHS web portals or via FOIA.gov, rather than by email, fax, or mail. The revised regulations permit alternative submission methods only in limited circumstances—for example, for incarcerated individuals or others who are unable to submit requests online.

DHS did not solicit public comment on the rule. The final rule takes effect on January 22, 2026.

FOIA News: NJ's Gov.-elect declines to release Navy records

Sherrill rejects participating with FOIA request on Navy records

She faced questions around her role in a cheating scandal shortly before Election Day.

By Daniel Han & Madison Fernandez, PolitcoPro, Dec. 22, 2025

EAST BRUNSWICK, New Jersey — Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill is declining to participate with a public records request to authorize the release of her Navy disciplinary records, her transition team told POLITICO.

POLITICO put in a federal Freedom of Information Act request requesting Sherrill’s Navy records — specifically for disciplinary records related to an academic cheating scandal that happened when Sherrill was in the Naval academy. The Navy said access to such records would require Sherrill to authorize them, which her transition team said she would not do.

Read more here (access with free trial subscription).

Court opinion issued Dec. 18, 2025

Am. First Legal Found. v. Roberts (D.D.C.) — granting the government’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction; holding that the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts are not “agencies” for purposes of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) because they are not “like the Executive Branch entities FOIA explicitly contemplates,” nor are they “government corporations” or “independent agencies,” all of which are indisputably subject to the statute; explaining that, while the Judicial Conference and Administrative Office are not literally “courts,” plaintiff’s “too cramped” reading of the statute ignored how these entities serve important “supporting” functions within the Judicial Branch, both with respect to its policymaking and day-to-day administration; noting, moreover, the “well-trodden path” of past caselaw confirming neither entity is subject to FOIA from which the court saw “no reason to stray”; finally, highlighting the “arbitrary” “line drawing” that would ensue if FOIA applied to any part of the Judicial Branch that was not literally part of “the courts,” i.e., “judges and ‘law clerks,’” as the requester posited based on the phrasing of 5 U.S.C. § 551(1)(B).

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

Court opinions issued Dec. 15-16, 2025

Dec. 16, 2025

Heritage Found. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiffs’ motion for attorney’s fees pertaining to its request for expedited treatment of its request for records related to FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022; finding that DOJ had already decided to expedite processing before plaintiffs filed suit, so their litigation did not substantially cause the agency to act.

Dec. 15, 2025

African Immigrant Rights Council v. USCIS (D. Md.) -- denying without prejudice plaintiff’s motion for attorney’s fees and costs, concluding that although plaintiff was both eligible and entitled to an award, it failed to show the reasonableness of the amounts sought.

Risenhoover v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) CIA’s and DOD’s searches were adequate, rejecting challenges to their scope, and granted summary judgment to the State Department after finding no evidence it received a FOIA request; (2) CIA properly issued a Glomar response under Exemptions 1 and 3 to a request seeking records of an alleged classified CIA affiliation with certain groups, and DOD properly withheld government directives and communications related to Taiwan based on Exemption 5’s presidential communications privilege; and (3) pro se plaintiff was ineligible for attorney’s fees.

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