June 22, 2026
Stevens v. ICE (7th Cir.) -- vacating district court's order requiring production of more than 2,000 pages without redactions as sanction for agency's mismanagement of FOIA litigation and Vaughn Index deficiencies; finding that while slew of agency errors might justify sanctions, district court’s blanket disclosure was abuse of discretion where injury from the sanction fell on innocent third parties rather than the agency employees responsible for errors; noting that "one should never attribute to malice something that can be explained by incompetence" and that "errors—even howlers—are inevitable" given volume of documents involved; further noting that judge's choice to order blanket disclosure rather than refer documents to magistrate or special master for in camera review was unjustified; and remanding with instructions to limit disclosures to information concerning agency's own operations and privileges that agency is free to waive.
June 21, 2026
Gomez v. USCIS (N.D. Cal.) -- ordering EOIR and USCIS to produce plaintiff's immigration records without redactions within four days where agencies missed statutory deadlines and failed to grant expedited processing, and where plaintiff faced imminent pre-deprivation bond hearing; finding that agency improperly relied on privacy exemptions to withhold requester's own records; further finding that Exemption 7(E) did not shield employer information or biographical details in Form I-213 narrative where such information constituted neither investigative techniques nor procedures; lastly, determining that balance of equities tipped in favor of TRO where government sought expedited bond hearing while stonewalling plaintiff's FOIA requests.
Summaries of published opinions issued in 2026 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2025, 2024, and from 2015 to 2023.