Feb. 6, 2026
Finkelstein v. Nat’l Insts. of Health (D.D.C.) — granting the requester’s motion for attorney fees and costs and awarding the full amount requested, $36,973.65; concluding the requester was “eligible” for a fee award and “substantially prevailed” under the “catalyst theory” because the agency (1) “repeatedly refused to provide an estimated date of completion,” (2) “categorically denied [in its Answer] that ‘Plaintiff is entitled to . . . any relief whatsoever,’” (3) left unresolved “discrepancies in the [evidentiary] record as to how and when” it “conducted its search,” and (4) “amended and re-released material . . . initially withheld from disclosure” after the requester “challenged some . . . redactions”; concluding also that the requester was “entitled to fees” because the requester is an “investigative journalist” and sought records that would serve the public interest, did not otherwise have a private or “purely commercial” interest in disclosure, and the government did not have a reasonable basis for its withholdings; rejecting the agency’s challenge to the reasonableness of the requester’s sought-after fee amount.
Feb. 5, 2026
Informed Consent Action Network v. Food & Drug Admin. (D.D.C.) — granting the government’s Open America motion to “stay proceedings for eighteen months due to significant records demands imposed on Defendants by a district court in Texas”; rejecting the requester’s argument, “[a]t the outset,” that the FOIA denies courts the authority to authorize judicial stays; noting, with respect to the existence of “exception circumstances,” that the agencies remain “subject to increasing production rates . . . ranging from a total of 90,000 to 180,000 pages per month” in other litigation, and these orders have significantly impacted available resources for processing other requests; noting also the agencies’ efforts to “triage the substantial demands” of this other ongoing litigation; concluding the government has otherwise demonstrate “due diligence” in complying with the FOIA, whether considered in general or with respect to the specific request at issue.
Summaries of published opinions issued in 2026 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2025, 2024, and from 2015 to 2023.