Court opinion issued Dec. 28, 2023

Nat'l Press Club Journalism Inst. v. USCIS (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) both USCIS and ICE conducted adequate searches for records concerning a Mexican journalist and his son, but not with respect to records of “mechanisms used to limit or block phone calls” at ICE’s El Paso facilities”; (2) ICE’s Vaughn Index and declarations were inadequate to justify its withholdings pursuant to Exemption 5 (deliberative process and attorney-client privileges) and Exemptions 6 and 7(C); and (3) ICE was entitled to reprocess documents that it inadvertently disclosed to plaintiff, but declining to limit plaintiff’s use of inadvertently disclosed documents because ICE had “not moved for any relief whatsoever on this front.”

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

Court opinion issued Dec. 22, 2023

Ctr. For Investigative Reporting v. DOL (N.D. Cal.) -- concluding that DOL improperly withheld EEO-1 reports pursuant to Exemption 4 after deciding—over the objections of six representative federal contractors—that: (1) the workforce demographic data contained within those reports did not qualify as “commercial”; (2) such data was not independently protected by the Trade Secrets Act; and (3) whether the data was “confidential” was a moot issue, as was the foreseeable harm test.

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

Court opinion issued Dec. 21, 2023

Magassa v. TSA (D.C. Cir.) (unpublished) -- affirming district court’s decision that: (1) TSA properly withheld security screening records concerning plaintiff pursuant to Exemption 3 in conjunction with 49 U.S.C. § 114(r); (2) TSA properly relied on Exemption 6 to withhold names of certain TSA agents associated with screening plaintiff; (3) agency performed adequate search in response to plaintiff’s request; and (4) plaintiff could not challenge agency’s Glomar response as to whether plaintiff appeared on terrorist watch lists, because he failed to raise the issue in his administrative appeal.

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

Court opinion issued Dec. 20, 2023

Muzumala v. FBI (S.D.N.Y.) -- finding that: (1) FBI timely responded to plaintiff’s request by regular mail to plaintiff’s last known address, rejecting plaintiff’s argument that he was entitled to a response via email; (2) FBI performed a reasonable search for records concerning plaintiff, who provided no evidence that agency had responsive records; and (3) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff and properly withheld certain records pursuant to Exemption 3 in conjunction with 49 U.S.C. § 114(r), as well as Exemptions 6, 7(C), and 7(E).

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

Court opinions issued Dec. 19, 2023

Am. Civil. Liberties Union of Mass. v. DHS (D. Mass.) -- following in camera review of disputed records, concluding that DHS properly relied on Exemption 7(E) to withhold portion of its “Criminal Gangs Investigations Handbook” that contained “detailed definitions and the specific criteria that [the agency] considers when identifying gangs, criminal activity, and gang members.”

Lindsay-Poland v. DOJ (N.D. Cal.) -- ruling that: (1) even if an appropriations rider protected certain firearms information pursuant to Exemption 3, an exception to that rider permitted disclosure of certain “statistical aggregate data” to plaintiff because he was a news media representative or the functional equivalent; and (2) agency failed to adequately show that release of zip code data would violate the privacy of certain licensees and fall outside the bounds of “statistical aggregate data.”

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

Court opinion issued Dec. 15, 2023

Voice of San Diego v. NCIS (S.D. Cal.) -- determining that: (1) Navy performed adequate search for records concerning its investigations into suicides of certain service members; and (2) government’s explanations for privacy withholdings in the Vaughn Index were too “boilerplate and conclusory” to permit the court to conduct required balancing test; noting that government’s terse descriptions nonetheless suggested that “substantial privacy interests” were at stake, and that court harbored doubt that plaintiff could show an overriding public interest in disclosure.

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

Court opinions issued Dec. 7 & 13, 2023

Dec. 13, 2023

Ulis v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- ruling that FBI properly refused to release the clip-on necktie of D.B. Cooper, because tangible objects are not reproducible and do not qualify as agency records.

Dec. 7, 2023

Nagdy v. DOJ (W.D. Ky.) -- dismissing plaintiff’s claim against FBI because he failed to administratively appeal from the agency’s response to his request for records concerning his state-court criminal case.

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

Court opinion issued Dec. 5, 2023

Chohan v. U.S. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- ruling that agency properly relied on Exemption 3, in conjunction with 8 U.S.C. § 1202(f) (Immigration & Nationality Act), to withhold records pertaining to agency’s denial of plaintiff’s visa applications.

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

Court opinion issued Nov. 29, 2023

Roland v. DOJ (7th Cir.) -- affirming district court’s ruling that: (1) before filing suit, plaintiff failed to administratively appeal DOJ’s determinations that neither the FBI nor National Security Division had records of spying on plaintiff through his television set, and that any existing records would be classified, in any event; (2) plaintiff’s claim about the existence of responsive records was “implausible,” dismissing plaintiff’s reliance on certain video recordings of television broadcasts as unrealistic.

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

Court opinion issued Nov. 28, 2023

Huddleston v. FBI (E.D. Tex.) -- concluding that: (1) the FBI failed to justify its reliance on Exemption 7(D) and 7(E) to withhold information from the images of Seth Rich’s personal laptop; (2) FBI failed to show that records concerning Seth Rich’s work laptop were not “agency records,” rejecting the use of the four-factor Burka test and adopting the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Rojas v. FAA; and (3) FBI properly withheld newly found records concerning the work laptop pursuant to Exemption 7(A), citing a criminal prosecution and governmental action against various Russian nationals who have been indicted by a grand jury in the District of Columbia.

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