FOIA Advisor

Court opinions issued Oct. 11, 2016

Allan BlutsteinComment

Shapiro v. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- ordering the Office of the Solicitor General to search the email accounts of former employees for records concerning changes to Supreme Court opinions, but finding that the agency's search was proper in all other respects.

Wright v. Admin. for Children & Families (D.D.C.) -- finding that HHS agency performed an adequate search for certain records concerning unaccompanied alien children, and that it properly redacted information pursuant to Exemption 5's deliberative process privilege.  Of note, the court ruled that the agency was not required to search employees' personal email accounts, because plaintiff had not rebutted the  presumption that "agency records responsive to a FOIA request would unlikely be located solely in their personal email accounts."

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.