Elkins v. FAA (D.D.C) -- Ruling that agency failed to describe its search for certain items of request about an aircraft reportedly conducting surveillance of plaintiff, but rejecting plaintiff’s contention that FAA should be required to locate and translate a code transmitted by aircraft in order to determine the plane’s ‘N’ number. With respect to FAA’s withholdings under Exemption 7(E), the court held that FAA failed to show in its “laconic briefing” that voice recordings and flight tracking records, which are collected as a matter of course for all aircraft, were originally or subsequently compiled for a law enforcement purpose; however, a sealed declaration filed by FAA demonstrated that the identity of the law enforcement agency operating the aircraft was properly withheld.
See complete case list for April 2015 here.