Below is a summary of the notable FOIA court decisions and news from last month, as well as a look ahead to FOIA events in April.
Court decisions
We identified and posted 41 decisions in the month of March, our highest monthly count in four years (43 in March 2021). Two notable decisions issued last month emanated from one case, Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. U.S. DOGE Serv., No. 25-cv-511 (D.D.C.), in which the parties dispute whether FOIA applies to the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (USDS or DOGE). On March 10th, the court granted in part and denied in part plaintiff’s request for expedited processing and concluded from the preliminary record (mostly news sources) that DOGE exercised substantial independent authority from the President and therefore “likely” was an agency subject to FOIA. The government quickly moved for reconsideration, but the court denied the motion on March 19th, in large part because the government’s “arguments could all have been raised during the last round of briefing” and “none of them provides a basis for reconsideration.” The court acknowledged, however, that “it would be preferable . . . to review the question of whether [DOGE] is subject to the FOIA on the merits based on a more complete record,” and invited the requester to file a motion for limited discovery. On the same date, the government moved for summary judgment. See the case docket to follow subsequent proceedings.
In a less publicized but nonetheless interesting) decision, the court in Heritage Found. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) considered the meaning of a “request” for the purpose of determining whether plaintiff had exhausted its administrative remedies. Although the FBI administratively divided plaintiff’s single request for three items into three separate requests, the court held that Heritage’s overall submission constituted its FOIA request and therefore Heritage was not required to administratively appeal the FBI’s timely-issued denials for two items (and the separate denial of a fee waiver) because the FBI had failed to timely respond to the third item.
Top News
After a nearly two-week delay in publishing data from annual agency FOIA reports, DOJ/OIP reported on March 14th that nearly 1.5 million requests had been received across the government in fiscal year 2024, up 25 percent from fiscal year 2023. DHS alone received more than 900,000 requests.
Sunshine Week (March 16-22) included a privately organized Sunshine Fest that generated a slew of research ideas, as well as a panel discussion hosted by the National Archives. The Department of Justice’s annual event was either canceled or not public; DOJ was silent on the matter.
DOJ/OIP issued its annual Litigation and Compliance Report on or about March 10th. Of note, requesters filed 889 FOIA lawsuits in calendar year 2024—the highest number of suits DOJ has ever reported.
DOJ/OIP’s director, Bobak Talebian, was fired on March 8th, along with several other heads of DOJ components.
The federal FOIA Advisory Committee for the 2024-2026 term met on March 6.
April Events
Apr. 8: Introduction to the FOIA Training,10:00am to 1:30pm EST.
Apr. 8: U.S. Senate Judiciary FOIA hearing, 10:15am EST.
Apr. 11: D.C. Circuit argument in Campaign for Accountability v. DOJ, No. 24-5163, 9:30am EST.
Apr. 16: Processing a FOIA Request from Start to Finish Training, 10:00am to 12:00pm EST.
Apr. 25: Deadline for agencies to report FY25 Q2 data.
