FOIA News: Nominations open for worst 2024 FOIA responses

What went wrong this year in transparency? Share your stories!

Next Sunshine Week will mark the tenth anniversary of the Foilies, the annual “awards” highlighting those that obstructed the public’s right to know.

By Michael Morisy, Muckrock, Nov. 25, 2024

Have you run into an egregious records denial? Still aching about an agency thwarting the public’s right to know? Just need to vent about the one (FOIA request) that got away? This is your chance to share and commiserate: Submissions are open for nominations to the 2025 Foilies!

Read more here.

FOIA News: 50th anniversary of 1974 FOIA Amendments

1974 FOIA Amendments Mark Golden Anniversary

By NARA-OGIS, FOIA Ombuds, Nov. 21, 2024

Requesters, the next time you work to “reasonably describe” records in a FOIA request or visit FOIA.gov for agency FOIA data, you can thank the 1974 FOIA amendments. And agency FOIA professionals, you can thank the 1974 FOIA amendments for setting timeframes for agency action on FOIA requests and establishing the one-time 10-working-day extension for “unusual circumstances.” 

The week of November 18-22, 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the amendments, passed by Congress eight years after it passed the original law. The amendments require agencies to publish indices of agency information; established the U.S. District Court in D.C. as a universal venue for FOIA lawsuits; and gave federal judges the power to review classified documents in private to determine whether the records were properly classified.

Read more here.

FOIA News: DOJ-OIP releases its Standard Operating Procedures

Last month, the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy released its Standard Operating Procedures in response to a FOIA request from GovermentAttic.org. The 83-page production consists of two parts: 15 pages pertaining to administrative appeals and a 68-page “Compliance Team Handbook.”

Of interest, OIP employees are instructed to not use gender pronouns or “Mr.” ”Mrs.” or Ms.” in appeal response letters. Neutral titles such as “Dr.” or “Esq.” are acceptable. For DOJ’s “Sunshine Week” event, a compliance team attorney drafts the OIP Director’s remarks. We appreciate that component heads can get busy, but OIP co-founder Dan Metcalfe must be rolling in his grave. Regarding the “DOJ Guide to the FOIA,” the Handbook states that “[t]here is a rotating, 2-year schedule for regular chapter updates. The goal is to implement more regular and recent changes in case law, owing to increased FOIA litigation.” We can’t help but note that of the 25 Guide chapters, only five have been updated since November 2022. We further note that OIP’s “2-year” schedule should be a “two-year” schedule, according to most style guides (including OIP’s house guide).

FOIA News: FOIA under Trump

What will a second Trump term mean for the Freedom of Information Act?

The law itself is likely to stand, but experts expect a surge in requests, longer delays, and more court dates.

By Andrew Deck Nieman Lab, Nov. 20, 2024

During the first Trump administration, one law arguably played an outsized role in fueling accountability reporting on the federal government. The Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, has long been a cornerstone of investigative journalism in the U.S. Documents obtained through FOIA requests underpinned countless marquee investigative stories during Trump’s first term.

As bleak forecasts circulate about how the new administration might impact the lives and work of journalists in the U.S., I was curious to learn how the climate around government transparency and FOIA compliance might change. Is FOIA on solid footing as Trump heads back to the White House or could it be undercut by legislation — or, more discreetly, chipped away at, agency by agency?

Read more here.

FOIA News: More on flood of requests targeting agency employees

Inside the conservative hunt for partisans in the federal government before Trump takes over

By Steve Contorno, CNN, Nov. 16, 2024

In mid-September, as tech billionaire Elon Musk intensified his efforts to elect Donald Trump as president, a wave of letters arrived at the Department of Transportation, asking the agency to turn over any emails and text messages that federal workers sent about the world’s wealthiest man and his sprawling technology empire.

The requests were like thousands of others sent in the past two years by Trump-allied groups seeking to identify perceived partisans within the federal government. Some have focused on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, others on employees who shared “off the record” information with reporters and on emails referencing “climate change.”

It’s a massive fishing expedition that has already sent a chill through federal agencies bracing for Trump’s second term.

With Trump set to return to the White House with a promise to shrink the federal government and eliminate civil servants seen as obstacles to his agenda, the groundwork laid by these groups could serve as a road map for a mass purging of personnel.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Theodore Olson & FOIA

The late, great lawyer Ted Olson, who died at age 84 on November 13, 2024, is perhaps best known for his blockbuster U.S. Supreme Court wins in Bush v. Gore, which ended the 2000 presidential election, and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a 2010 case that eliminated many limits on political donations. We cannot help but note that Mr. Olson also participated in two high-profile Freedom of Information Act matters. While serving as Solicitor General, the the government prevailed in National Archives and Records Administration v. Favish, a landmark 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision recognizing the concept of “survivor privacy” under Exemption 7(C). And while in private practice, Mr. Olson represented Citizens United in its 2015 lawsuit against the State Department seeking access to Hilary Clinton’s emails.

Read more about Mr. Olson here.

FOIA News: A toothless take on FOIA

Abolish FOIA

FOIA has no teeth and bureaucrats abuse its exemptions. Just redact and release every federal workers' emails instead.

By C.J. Ciaramella, Reason, Dec. 2024

Over the past decade I've submitted hundreds of records requests to federal agencies through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). I've written extensively about the law, taught college students how to file requests, and evangelized the importance of having a statutory right to inspect public records.

I love FOIA. And I hate it. The federal FOIA law is broken and should be replaced with something better.

FOIA requests can take years to fulfill, unless you can afford to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit. Agency FOIA officers routinely abuse exemptions to hide records. The process is difficult even for experienced reporters to use for newsgathering.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Recap of CFO Council meeting

The Office of Government Information Services has posted a recap of the Chief FOIA Officers Council meeting held on Friday, November 7, 2024.

FOIA News: Texas AG seeks to preserve Special Counsel's Trump files; FOIA request still pending

Texas Seeks to Stop Special Counsel From Erasing Trump Files

By Bernie Pazanowski, Bloomberg Law, Nov. 12, 2024

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) asked a federal court to prevent special counsel Jack Smith from destroying documents related to his investigation and prosecution of president-elect Donald Trump.

After Trump won reelection, Paxton’s office filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records from Smith’s investigation into Trump’s alleged criminal activities during his first term as president. Fearing that Smith will destroy the records, Paxton seeks a temporary restraining order from the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The case was assigned to Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by Trump.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Sierra Club boss vows ‘massive FOIA operation’

Sierra Club boss vows ‘massive FOIA operation’

By Robin Bravender, E&E News, Nov. 7, 2024

The Sierra Club plans to launch a “massive FOIA operation” to keep tabs on the incoming Trump administration, the green group’s leader said Thursday.

The club will be watching President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming appointees “very, very closely,” Executive Director Ben Jealous told reporters Thursday. “You can anticipate that we will have a massive FOIA operation up and running, and we will go after them very aggressively.”

Read more here.