FOIA Advisor

Court opinions issued July 23, 2018

Court Opinions (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Kansas ex rel Schmidt v. DOD (D. Kan.) -- following in camera review of five documents pertaining to proposed closing of Guantanamo Bay detention center, concluding that: (1) agency improperly relied on deliberative process privilege to withhold information about actual costs of housing various prisoners; (2) agency properly invoked deliberative process privilege to withhold projected costs of moving Guantanamo Bay prisoners; and (3) agency properly withheld draft email pursuant to deliberative process privilege, but improperly relied on same privilege to withhold identity of another agency.

Villar v. FBI (D.N.H.) -- ruling that FBI properly invoked Exemptions 6, 7(C), 7(D), and 7(E) to withhold records, or portions thereof, concerning agency's investigation of plaintiff-inmate's criminal activity. 

Mora-Villalpando v. ICE (W.D. Wa.) -- denying government's motion to strike Complaint's allegations that ICE illegally targeted plaintiff and other immigration activists, because allegations would be relevant to "public interest" factors considered under Exemptions 6 and 7(C) and for attorney's fees.      

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here