FOIA Advisor

Court opinions issued July 7, 2022

Court Opinions (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Hall v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- in case litigated for 18 years, deciding “final issue” that agency performed adequate search of its operational files for records concerning Vietnam War prisoners of war.

Hughes v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys conducted adequate search for records concerning plaintiff, (2) EOUSA improperly treated records related to two defendants in plaintiff’s criminal case as non-responsive, and agency needed to clarify whether it possessed a sealed court filing that it treated as non-responsive; (3) EOUSA properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 5’s attorney work-product privilege; (4) EOUSA and FBI properly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) to withhold records concerning various third parties, but ordering each agency to release records concerning plaintiff’s codefendants; and (5) plaintiff was eligible and entitled to recover his litigation costs of $350.

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