DC Cir. Revives Law Prof’s FOIA Fee Dispute With IRS, Law360 (Mar. 9, 2021)
A University of Denver law professor is entitled to attorney fees after successfully litigating a Freedom of Information Act case with the IRS, the D.C. Circuit said Tuesday as it reversed a lower court’s decision denying the award.
Read more here (behind paywall).
Aimee Davenport, et al., Supreme Court Protects Drafts Under Deliberative Process Privilege, JDSupra (Mar. 9, 2021)
Last week, in Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s first signed opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded the deliberative process privilege under exception 5 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), limiting litigants’ ability to access certain documents while a matter is still under consideration by federal agencies.
Read more here.
Ariane de Vogue, Stephen Bryer adds ‘respect’ to his dissent of Amy Coney Barrett’s first opinion, CNN (Mar. 8, 2021)
Justice Amy Coney Barrett filed her first signed majority opinion last week, a momentous occasion for any new justice, and now she officially has the "respect" of the dissenting side.
Under court tradition, a new justice is usually assigned a relatively uncontroversial opinion that is often, although not always, unanimous. . . . But eyebrows were raised when Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, not only dissented, but omitted a key word in his dissent. Except in the most fiery cases when a justice really thinks the majority has gone astray, he or she usually ends an opinion with some formulation of "I respectfully dissent." But in his opinion, Breyer left out the respect part. . . . On Monday, without comment, the answer was clear. Breyer amended the opinion, clearly signaling that he meant no disrespect.
Read the full article here.
Alejandro Camacho & Melissa Kelly, Court favors deliberative-process privilege protections over FOIA transparency goals, SCOTUSblog (Mar. 6, 2021)
Notwithstanding the Freedom of Information Act’s primary goal of promoting transparency in government decision-making, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled by a 7-to-2 vote that the public policy of facilitating agency candor in exercising its expertise in preliminary agency deliberations can outweigh such transparency and accountability concerns. Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivered the 11-page opinion, her first majority opinion since joining the court in October. It was a natural debut given that the case, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club, was the first oral argument that Barrett heard after joining the bench.
Read more here.
Jeffrey Justman & Matt Sapp, Supreme Court Decides United States Fish and Wildlife Service et al. v. Sierra Club, Inc., JDSupra (Mar. 5, 2021)
On March 4, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided United States Fish and Wildlife Service et al. v. Sierra Club, Inc., holding that the deliberative process privilege exemption in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) protects predecisional, deliberative draft opinions from disclosure.
Read more here.
William Droze, Supreme Court Sides with Agency on Deliberative Process Privilege, JDSupra (Mar. 5, 2021)
Today, in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service et al. v. Sierra Club Inc., Case No. 19-547, the United States Supreme Court struck down a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that the federal government was required to turn over documents with regard to a proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation for power plant cooling.
Read more here.
Supreme Court clarifies scope of the deliberative process privilege, Lexology (Mar. 5, 2021)
On March 4, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, in a 7-2 opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett (her first majority opinion on the court), that the deliberative process privilege protects from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in-house draft biological opinions that are both pre-decisional and deliberative, even if the drafts do reflect an agency’s final position.
Read more here.
Ariane de Vogue, Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s first majority written opinion limits reach of FOIA, CNN (Mar. 4, 2021)
ustice Amy Coney Barrett penned her first Supreme Court majority opinion on Thursday, writing a 7-2 decision that will shield federal agencies from having to disclose certain materials under an exception to the Freedom of Information Act.
Read more here.