FOIA Advisor

Court opinions issued Aug. 10-11, 2022

Court Opinions (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Aug. 11, 2022

Climate Investigations Ctr. v. U.S. Dep’t of Energy (D.D.C.) -- following five rounds of summary judgment, deciding that: (1) agency performed adequate supplemental search of Secretary’s office; (2) agency properly invoked Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold some, but not all, disputed documents, and it met the statute’s foreseeable harm requirement.

Aug. 10, 2022

Protect the People’s Trust v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- deciding that Department’s Privacy Office received plaintiff’s request and was required to search for responsive records, because: (1) the request was addressed to the Privacy Office, among others; and (2) another DHS component referred records to the Privacy Office, as well as a copy of the request; (3) plaintiff repeatedly informed DHS that the Privacy office maintained responsive records'; and (4) DHS regulations did not require plaintiff to resubmit request if misdirected.

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