FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: Court questions HUD’s summer FOIA shutdown

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

HUD Asked If FOIA Summer Shutdown Plan Is 'Even Lawful'

By Frank G. Runyeon, Law360, May 15, 2020

A Manhattan federal judge on Friday questioned whether a federal agency had the right to effectively halt processing Freedom of Information Act requests for weeks or months as he mulled ordering the government back into action.

U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman told counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development he doubted that the government had the authority to simply stop handling FOIA requests while the agency rolls over its document review systems this summer from mid-June to mid-July, noting the government's responsibility to obey the law.

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