FOIA Advisor

Court opinion issued Dec. 13, 2024

Court Opinions (2024)Allan BlutsteinComment

Found. for Gov’t Accountability v. DOJ (M.D. Fla.) --granting DOJ’s renewed summary motion following in camera inspection of three documents pertaining to Executive Order 14019; finding that: (1) DOJ properly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold “a compilation of fragmented notes” of a DOJ employee memorializing a listening session in which voting rights advocates shared ideas and strategies with the White House and executive branch officials; and (2) DOJ properly relied on Exemption 5’s presidential communications privilege to withhold its strategic plan and rejecting plaintiff’s arguments that: (a) disclosure of fact sheet and strategic plans by other agencies waived the privilege for DOJ; (b) that the President was required to personally invoke the privilege; and (c) that the strategic plan reflected only DOJ decision-making, not presidential decision-making; further finding that DOJ’s strategic plan was treated as a confidential document and that DOJ sufficiently identified multiple foreseeable harms.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.