FOIA Advisor

Court opinions issued Sept. 28, 2022

Court Opinions (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Kendrick v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- finding that FBI performed adequate search for records pertaining to plaintiff, properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 7(C), 7(D), and 7(E), and met the foreseeable harm requirement; noting that satisfying the terms of exemptions outside of Exemption 5 by itself “goes a long way to meeting the foreseeable harm requirement.”

Nat'l Pub. Radio v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- concluding that DHS improperly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold mostly factual information contained in investigatory reports of immigrant detention facilities, and it failed to show that any of its withholdings met the foreseeable harm requirement.

Am. Small Bus. League v. OMB (N.D. Cal.) -- ruling that OMB performed a reasonable search for records indicating the total federal acquisition budget for FY 2017, FY 2018, and FY 2019, and that plaintiff impermissibly expanded the scope of its request after commencing litigation.

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