Shapiro v. Dep’t of Justice (D.D.C.) — faced with “the latest in a very long series of disputes between the parties,” ordering the FBI to process and produce the potentially responsive contents of the agency’s “Freedom of Information and Privacy Act Document Processing System (‘FDPS’)”; rejecting the FBI’s arguments that “substantive entries” in its FDPS were alternatively (1) outside agency control, (2) lacked “sufficient permanence” to be considered a “record,” or (3) would require “record creation” in order to disclose; similarly rejecting the FBI’s argument that production would “involve a ‘gargantuan’ effort,” as creating screenshots would not be “any different [than] the burden imposed in myriad FOIA cases.”

Reason Found. v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons (D.D.C.) — in a case involving BOP “mortality reviews” of inmate deaths, upholding in part the agency’s use of Exemption 5, in conjunction with the deliberative-process privilege, because mortality reviews are prepared to assist in high-level decisionmaking about inmate care and reflect non-factual opinions about the same; noting, however, that there is “uncertainty” as to whether portions of the reviews concerning administration of emergency care (e.g., CPR) is privileged, and allowing BOP to renew its motion for summary judgment; noting further that BOP waived privilege for a small subset of withholdings applied to “checkbox questions where [the agency] disclosed the narrative response to the same question.”

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