Court opinions issued Jan. 5 & 7, 2016

Jan. 7, 2016

Estate of Abduljaami v. U.S. Dep't of State (S.D.N.Y.) -- determining that agency conducted a reasonable search for records concerning death of an individual in Cologne, Germany, and that disputed information was properly protected under Exemption 6.  

Polk v. Fed. Bureau of Investigation (N.D. Cal.) -- holding that FBI conducted a reasonable search in response to pro se prisoner's request for records concerning a file number that plaintiff mistakenly believed was evidence of an FBI investigation concerning her.  

Jan. 5, 2016

Navigators Ins. Co. v. Dep't of Justice (D. Conn.) -- ruling that plaintiff was not entitled to declaratory relief merely because the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys had failed to timely process plaintiff's requests, even though the agency delays were "egregious."  The court further rejected plaintiff's argument that "public interest"  was sufficient to overcome Exemption 7(C)  or any other asserted exemptions.  The court,  however, declined to grant summary judgment for the government because  its "meager" declaration failed to demonstrate that it had conducted an adequate search.  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinion issued Jan. 4, 2016

Pinson v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- finding that plaintiff, a pro se prisoner, failed to establish that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) received 19 of his 70 requests. Of the remaining 28 requests in dispute, the court granted in part and denied in part BOP's argument that plaintiff failed to appeal or to pay required fees with respect to several requests.  The court further found that BOP conducted an adequate search in response to certain requests, but not others.  Lastly, the court held that BOP properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 5, 6, 7(C), 7(E), and 7(F).   

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinions issued Dec. 22-23, 2015

Dec. 23, 2015

Baird v. Dep't of the Interior (E.D. La.) -- ruling that the government performed an adequate search in response to employee's request for records relating to his Civil Rights Act complaints and that disputed redactions were protected under the deliberative process privilege.  

Dec. 22, 2015

Abtew v. U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec. (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming district court's decision that an asylum officer's recommendation to a supervisor was exempt under the deliberative process privilege; rejecting appellant's arguments that DHS had adopted the recommendation as a final decision or that DHS was estopped from invoking privilege given  prior disclosures of the same document in other cases.   

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued Dec. 18, 2015

Snyder v. Dep't of Def. (N.D. Cal.) -- ruling that the Defense Logistics Agency had released certain responsive computer code information to plaintiff and therefore his claim for relief was moot; further ruling that DLA properly withheld other computer code information as critical infrastructure security information pursuant to Exemption 3 in conjunction with 10 U.S.C. §130e. 

Carlson v. U.S. Postal Serv. (N.D. Cal.) -- finding that spreadsheets indicating the number of transactions at given Postal Service locations in half-hour increments were properly withheld under Exemption 3, in conjunction with 39 U.S.C. § 410(c)(2), which exempts from disclosure Postal Service records that are of a commercial nature and would not be disclosed under good business practice.

Bartko v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- determining that the FBI properly withheld all but six pages of requested records concerning plaintiff's conviction pursuant to Exemptions 3 (grand jury), 6, and 7(C); rejecting agency's relince upon Exemption 7(E) altogether.    

Bagwell v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- denying government's motion for summary judgment in case involving records of DOJ's investigation of Pennsylvania State University sex abuse scandal.   The court held that the government's declarations and Vaughn Index were insufficient to assess whether the search was adequate or whether the withheld records were protected under Exemption 3 (grand jury).

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued Dec. 14, 2015

Long v. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (D.D.C.) -- holding that certain immigration information requested from government databases met the threshold requirements of Exemption 7(E), but finding that plaintiff raised genuine issues of fact as to whether disclosure would cause the harms identified by government.  The court further rejected the government's argument that the same information was exempt pursuant to the Federal Information Security Management Act ("Management Act"), 44 U.S.C. §§ 3541-49.  The court ruled in government's favor with respect to requested "snapshot" database information, because the agency established that fulfilling the request would be overly burdensome.  Lastly, the court determined that the agency performed an adequate search for responsive records.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued Dec. 8 & 10, 2015

Dec. 10, 2015

Harmon v. U.S. Dep't of the Treasury (S.D. Ind.) -- dismissing case because plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies for any of his four requests to the Internal Revenue Service.

Dec. 8, 2015

AAR Airlift Grp. v. U.S. Transp. Command (D.D.C. 2015) -- remanding a reverse-FOIA case in which plaintiff seeks to prevent disclosure of line-item pricing from a contract between the parties.  The court found that the agency's determination was arbitrary and capricious because the agency misinterpreted plaintiff's administrative correspondence.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued Dec. 2, 2015

Gahagan v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs. (E.D. La.) -- granting in part and denying in part agency's motion for summary judgment concerning request for an immigration file and related correspondence from agency field office. First, the court held that the agency's declarant was not required to have personally participated in the search for responsive records in order to have requisite personal knowledge of the search.  Second, the court held that the agency conducted an adequate search and that it was not required to explain why it did not search search in certain locations.  Third, the court found that USCIS had not discharged its FOIA obligations because four pages that it referred to the U.S. Department of State had not yet been processed.  Lastly, the court ordered USCIS to submit a new Vaughn Index to address various deficiencies, including withholdings under Exemption 5 and segregability.          

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued Nov. 30, 2015

Boyd v. Exec. Office for U.S. Attorneys (D.D.C.) -- determining that the agency:  (1) properly withheld records of interviews of third parties pursuant to Exemption 6 and 7(C); (2) properly withheld a "Conflict of Interest Certification" form under Exemption 3, in conjunction with 5 U.S.C. app. 4 § 107(a)(2); (3) properly withheld the first page of a letter concerning grand jury's investigation under Rule 6 (e) of Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, but that agency improperly relied on same privilege to withhold remaining pages; (4) properly withheld the remaining pages of aforementioned letter under Exemptions 5 and 7(C), except for one sentence that court deemed non-exempt.    

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued Nov. 25, 2015

Virginia-Pilot Media Cos. v. Dep't of Justice (E.D. Va.) -- finding that the FBI conducted an adequate search for responsive records and properly invoked Exemptions 5, 7(E), and 7(F), but declaring that plaintiff was prevailing party for purposes of attorney's fees because lawsuit was necessary to prompt agency's response.   

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued Nov. 23-24, 2015

Nov. 24, 2015

Aguiar v. Drug Enforcement Admin. (D.D.C.) -- concluding that GPS mapping software used by the DEA at plaintiff's criminal trial is not an agency record; further ruling that plaintiff's inability to access DEA-released information on a compact disk due to prison security rules could not be remedied via FOIA.  

Tipograph v. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- determining that plaintiff lacked standing to pursue her claim that the FBI maintains a policy of improperly invoking FOIA Exemption 7(A) at the investigative-file level rather than at the record level.  The court rejected the FBI's alternative argument that plaintiff's claim was moot.  

Nov. 23, 2015

Havemann v. Colvin (4th Cir.) -- affirming district court's decision that the Social Security Administration performed an adequate search in response to a large-scale request concerning allegedly underpaid beneficiaries, and that the requested data was either released or properly withheld under Exemption 6.  The Fourth Circuit rejected appellant's contentions that the public interest outweighed any privacy interests or that the district court "improperly considered affidavits from a previous case, erroneously relied upon interested 'experts,' and considered affidavits that were merely speculative."

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.