Kwoka v. IRS (D.C. Cir.) -- vacating denial of request for fees; holding that the district court abused its discretion by weighing several factors in the entitlement analysis against the requester; directing the district court to “evaluate the reasonableness of the IRS’s” argument that, at the time of the initial request, it believed segregating exempt and non-exempt materials would impose an unreasonable burden; further directing the district court to re-balance the factors of the fee entitlement analysis.
Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. BLM (D.D.C.) -- denying the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment concerning adequacy of the agency’s search for records responsive to a pair of requests about E.O. 13783 and Secretary’s Order 3338; noting the requester’s belief that certain draft records, which were missing from the agency’s production, exist “carries more than just speculative weight,” and calling alternative theories advanced by the agency “implausible and, if true, deeply troubling”; describing much of the agency’s supporting declaration as conclusory and deficient; directing the agency to request that former Secretary Zinke “search his own [personal] files for any agency records they may contain, to detail ‘its best efforts’ to retrieve records from the former Secretary, and to provide ‘any further evidence it is able to obtain’”; further directing the agency to seek the former Secretary’s assistance with accessing two work-issued cell phones, and to better describe efforts to obtain records from the phones; and requiring clarification from the agency with respect to records reflecting communications with the Trump Transition Team.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.