Jobs, jobs, jobs: Let the sunshine in

FOIA Ass’t, Dep’t of Homeland Sec./CBP, GS 5, Wash., DC, closes 5/6/26 (public).

Sunshine Week contractor, Brechner Freedom of Info. Proj., $3k weekly, Wash, DC area preferred, open until filled.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Fight over “optional” application essays

Federal job applicants can’t skip ‘loyalty question’ that OPM says is optional, court filings claim

OPM says it’s optional for job candidates to answer the essays and that they won’t be disqualified from consideration if they skip them.

By Jory Heckman Fed. News Network, Apr. 28, 2026

This story was updated at 3:52 p.m. on April 28 to include comments from an OPM official

New essay questions on many federal job applications, asking candidates how they would advance the Trump administration’s policies, are optional, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

But new documents submitted in a lawsuit seeking the removal of these essays show that job candidates, in some cases, can’t submit their online job applications if they leave the fields for essay responses blank.

One of several essay questions, outlined under the Trump administration’s Merit Hiring Plan, asks candidates how they would “advance the president’s executive orders and policy priorities,” to name “one or two executive orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you,” and how they would help implement them if hired.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Apr. 28, 2026

Fleck v. Nat’l Credit Union Admin. (D. Or.) -- denying pro se plaintiff's request for up to $63,000 in "monetary equitable relief," ruling that FOIA authorizes only injunctive relief and not damages, compensation for lost business income or economic displacement, or reimbursement for time spent litigating as a self-represented party; also denying award of costs, finding plaintiff had not substantially prevailed, his request served a personal rather than any meaningful public interest, he contributed to delays by repeatedly expanding the scope of his request, and he paid no filing fee or service costs and submitted no expense receipts.

Summaries of published opinions issued in 2026 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2025, 2024, and from 2015 to 2023.

FOIA News: David Morens, former NIAID advisor and Fauci confidant, indicted over alleged evasion of FOIA requests

David Morens, a former advisor at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for crimes related to an alleged scheme to evade Freedom of Information Act requests seeking records about COVID-19 research grants.

Dr. Morens, who previously advised Dr. Anthony Fauci and others, is charged with conspiracy; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting.

The indictment can be read here.

And DOJ’s press release is available here.

In 2024, a U.S. House select committee drafted a memorandum detailing some of the same alleged wrongdoing by Dr. Morens.

FOIA News: More coverage on indictment of David Morens

• Statement of House Oversight Chairman James Comer, 4/28/26

• Post, Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul), X, 4/28/26

• Grand Jury Indicts Former N.I.H. Official, NY Times, 4/28/26

• Former Health Official Charged With Concealing Emails About Covid-19 Grants, Wall St. J., 4/28/26

• Former Fauci aide charged with conspiring to evade Covid-related records requests, Politico, 4/28/26

• Trump admin revives COVID origins debate with indictment, Axios, 4/28/26

• Anthony Fauci adviser indicted by DOJ on charges of concealing COVID records, NY Post

• Former Fauci aide charged in alleged effort to thwart inquiries into pandemic, Wash. Post

• Who Is David Morens? Ex-Fauci Adviser Indicted Over Secret COVID Records, Newsweek, 4/28/26

FOIA News: New "FOIA Hiring Toolkit"

New FOIA Hiring Toolkit from Chief FOIA Officers Council Committee on Cross-Agency Collaboration and Innovation Available on FOIA.gov

Dep’t of Justice, Office of Info. Pol’y, FOIA Post (Apr. 28, 2026)

A new hiring toolkit issued by the FOIA Hiring Toolkit Working Group of the Chief FOIA Officer (CFO) Council Committee on Cross-Agency Collaboration and Innovation (COCACI) has been published on FOIA.gov.  The hiring toolkit provides sample KSAs, interview questions, scoring methods, position descriptions, and more.  All documents are available for download on FOIA.gov.

Agency FOIA professionals, FOIA leadership, and GIS career professionals are encouraged to review the toolkit.  For additional information about the CFO Council’s work, visit the Council page on FOIA.gov.  For additional information on COCACI, please review  COCACI’s FOIA.gov page. 

Read the original post here.

FOIA News: FOIA litigation webinar

On June 30, 2026, the Federal Bar Association will host a one-hour webinar entitled “Navigating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in Federal District Courts. The presentation will be led by Mark Zaid. See more details here.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Four your eyes only

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, GS 12, New Orleans, LA, closes 5/1/26 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, GS 12, Fairfield, CA, closes 5/5/26 (internal to agency).

FOIA Attorney-Adviser, Sec. & Exch. Comm’n, SK 14, Wash., DC, closes 5/8/26 (public).

Lead Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of State, GS 14, Wash., DC, closes 5/8/26 (non-public).

Court opinions issued Apr. 23, 2026

Block Club Chi. v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- ruling that that ICE properly relied on Exemption 7(C) to redact detainee names, case numbers, home addresses, and birth dates from spreadsheet records showing arrests and detentions involving ICE personnel in the Chicago region from January 21 to January 30, 2025; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that a public interest in verifying the agency’s claims regarding the "targeted" nature of the operations or the criminal status of detainees outweighed the substantial privacy interests.

Hester v. IRS (D. N.J.) (unpublished) -- denying in large part plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration of the Court’s prior order denying a TRO and preliminary injunction, finding plaintiff failed to show the IRS was destroying or likely to destroy FOIA-requested records and failed to justify expedited processing of FOIA requests tied to Tax Court disputes.

Summaries of published opinions issued in 2026 are available here. Earlier opinions are available for 2025, 2024, and from 2015 to 2023.

FOIA News: The sky is falling!

By Shifra Dayak, NOTUS, Apr. 27, 2026

These days, the life cycle of a Freedom of Information Act request goes something like this: submit the request, wait and watch the 20-business-day deadline for an agency to respond pass. Wait some more, and more, and then some more.

Sometimes, a FOIA officer sends a clarifying question. Either nothing more comes of it, or the released records are rife with redactions. Attempts to appeal result in more delays, leaving one more option: to sue.

Legally public information from the government is becoming harder to access. The Department of Energy reported 2,277 backlogged FOIA requests — or requests that are still open past the legally required response time — at the end of fiscal year 2025; by comparison, the agency reported 1,629 backlogged requests at the end of fiscal year 2024.

The Department of Defense reported a 20% increase in pending requests and a 42% increase in backlogged requests between the end of fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The State Department’s backlog, meanwhile, grew from more than 21,000 requests at the end of fiscal year 2024 to more than 27,000 requests at the end of fiscal year 2025.

A dozen experts, ranging from former federal employees who worked in FOIA offices to lawyers that litigate FOIA cases, told NOTUS that the Trump administration is categorically worse at complying with the transparency law.

Read more here.