FOIA Advisor

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Court opinions issued July 22, 2020

Am. Oversight v. U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury (D.D.C.) -- holding that Treasury properly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold communications between Treasury officials and Congress pertaining to potential tax code legislation. Of note, the court found that Treasury had solicited advice from Congress and, therefore, the disputed communications qualified as “inter-agency” or “intra-agency” under consultant corollary doctrine.

Democracy Forward Found. v. U.S. Dep’t of Commerce (D.D.C.) -- ruling that agency was required to search Commerce Secretary’s personal email account for government-related communications because record showed that he used personal email account for official business.

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