FOIA Advisor

Court opinions issued Sept. 6, 2017

Court Opinions (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Beagles v. Watkins (D.N.M) -- ruling that plaintiff improperly named individual employee as defendant and that plaintiff exhausted administrative remedies because agency failed to make determination on appeal for two years. 

King & Spalding v. HHS (D.D.C.) -- finding that government could not withhold information provided by confidential source pursuant to Exemptions 7(C) and/or 7(D) unless it explained whether source was an entity or individual. 

Judicial Watch. v. U.S. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- concluding that: (1) FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(E) to withheld surveillance videos concerning Anwar Aulaqi, an American-born Muslim cleric killed in Yemen by drone strike; and (2)  State Department failed to provide certain details necessary to evaluate adequacy of searches conducted in six of nine offices or record systems.   

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here