FOIA Advisor

Court opinions issued Nov. 27, 2019

Court Opinions (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Smith v. Nat’l Archives & Records Admin. (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) Presidential Records Act precluded judicial review of NARA’s Glomar response to plaintiff’s FOIA request for letters from President George W. Bush to Israel regarding the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; and (2) NARA’s properly relied on Exemption 1 in refusing to confirm or deny existence of letters sent by President Clinton to Israel regarding the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Democracy Forward Found. v. Ctr. for Medicaid Serv. (D.D.C.) -- rejecting agency’s deliberative process privilege claims to withhold three categories of records about agency’s Affordable Care Act outreach efforts, because agency failed to demonstrate that it released all segregable information or that certain communications fell within consultant corollary principle.

Mattachine Soc.of Wash. D.C. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- awarding plaintiff $178,448 in attorney’s fees and costs in connection with its litigation against FBI for records concerning Executive Order 10450, noting that FBI’s search was “highly unreasonable and extremely suspicious.”

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.