FOIA Advisor

Court opinions issued Aug. 14, 2020

Court Opinions (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

In re: Hillary Clinton (D.C. Cir.) -- finding that district court clearly abused its discretion in authorizing depositions of Hillary Clinton and Cheryl Mills, and granting the former’s petition for mandamus but not the latter’s because Ms, Mills had other means to attain relief.

Whitaker v. Dep’t of Commerce (2nd Cir.) -- affirming district court’s decision that : (1) the First Responder Network Authority, an independent entity within the Department of Commerce’s (DOC) National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), was not subject to FOIA; and (2) DOC and NTIA properly declined to search for requested records because such searches would have been futile, adopting D.C. Circuit’s standard.

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. U.S Dep’t of Commerce (D.D.C.) -- concluding that: (1) Department waived use of deliberative process privilege because it disclosed disputed records to third party and took no steps to rectify the disclosure; and (2) Department properly relied on Exemption 4 to withhold records provided under implied assurance of confidentiality.

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