Blevins v. ATF (W.D. Wash.) -- ruling that ATF performed adequate search for plaintiff’s initial request for records concerning plaintiff’s criminal case and use of a firearm, and therefore the agency was justified in declining to perform a duplicative search in response to plaintiff’s subsequent request for narrower set of duplicative records.
Schaefer v. EPA (D.D.C.) -- finding that EPA performed reasonable search for records concerning plaintiff’s criminal case and that it properly redacted record pursuant to Exemptions 5 (DPP), 6, and 7(C).
Louise Trauma Ctr. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- on renewed summary judgment in case concerning Office of Immigration Litigation training materials for appellate lawyers, concluding that: (1) with minor exceptions, agency properly relied on Exemption 5’s attorney work-product privilege to withold records, the vast majority of which were “training materials discussing arguments or strategies that DOJ attorneys adopt or consider in particular situations”; further concluding that agency met foreseeable harm requirement; (2) agency’s attorney-client privilege claims were deficient because agency failed to explain on how communications rested on “confidential information obtained from the clients”; and (3) agency did not justify its use of the deliberative process privilege, which in any event the agency deemed a “superfluous” claim.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.