Judicial Watch, Inc. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) — in a case concerning the withholding of employee rosters for the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith—and, specifically, the identities of employees at the GS-14 level or higher who had not previously been disclosed to the requester—granting the government’s motion for summary judgment and approving its use of Exemptions 6, 7(A), and 7(C); holding also that the foreseeable-harm standard was satisfied; noting, with respect to Exemption 7(A), that disclosure would expose Special Counsel employees to “threats and harassment,” and otherwise reveal “nonpublic information about the office’s ongoing investigations, including its focus and scope” and “size”; finally, with Exemptions 6 and 7(C), deciding that the public interest in disclose was “weak” given the low-level nature of the unidentified employees.
Walsh v. Dep’t of the Navy (D.S.D.) — holding, in most relevant part, that the Navy’s denial of plaintiff’s duplicative request was improper because the agency failed to cite any applicable exemptions, contrary to Eighth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court precedent; granting government’s motion to strike portions of complaint that were immaterial to plaintiff’s claim, rejecting plaintiff’s argument that doing so would violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.