Court opinions issued May 31, 2017

Kuzma v. DOJ (2nd Cir.) (summary order) -- affirming district court's decision that FBI conducted adequate search for records concerning civil rights activist Ray Robinson and properly withheld certain records pursuant to Exemption 3, 6, 7(A), 7(C), and 7(D).

Animal Legal Defense Fund v. USDA (N.D. Cal.) -- denying plaintiffs' request for preliminary injunction compelling USDA to restore public access to documents removed from online reading room.  In reaching its decision, the Court concluded that FOIA does not provide a public remedy for reading-room violations and that plaintiffs did not exhaust administrative remedies.  The Court further concluded that Administrative Procedure Act claim was unlikely to succeed and that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm or that the balance of harms weighs in their favor.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued May 30, 2017

Envtl. Integrity Project v. EPA (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming district court's decision that EPA properly withheld confidential commercial information pursuant to Exemption 4, rejecting appellant's argument that Exemption 4 is superseded by Section 308 of the Clean Water Act.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued May 25-26, 2017

May 26, 2017

The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten v. U.S. Dep't of Veterans Affairs (D. Conn.) -- concluding that: (1) agency failed to conduct an adequate search for certain records regarding compensation scheme for injuries caused to veterans by contaminated water at Marine Corps base; (2) agency failed to show that Exemption 6 applied to qualifications of agency employees.

May 25, 2016

Cause Action v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- determining that agency performed reasonable search for any records indicating that Executive Office of the President made unauthorized requests for tax return information.

Bloomgarden v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- finding that plaintiff was entitled to attorney's fees and costs given the government's "obdurate behavior that unnecessarily prolonged [the] litigation, but reducing award from $154,885 to $45,518 because of limited success, duplicative efforts, and improper billing techniques. 

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued May 17, 2107

Scudder v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- ruling that the CIA properly applied Exemption (b)(1) and adequately justified its segregability review where former CIA employee had requested copies of certain articles published in the CIA journal, Studies in Intelligence.

Katsiaficas v. CIA (D. Mass.) -- ruling that the CIA conducted an adequate search and properly applied Exemptions (b)(1) and (b)(3), in conjunction with Section 102A of the National Security Act and Section 6 of the Central Intelligence Act, to records concerning the United States government's long-term involvement in South Korea.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued May 16, 2017

Seavey v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- finding that plaintiff was entitled to public interest waiver of duplication fees with respect to requested FBI records concerning anti-war movement in St. Louis in 1960s and 1970s.

Immigrant Def. Project v. DHS (S.D.N.Y.) -- granting plaintiff's reconsideration motion regarding adequacy of ICE's search for records related to agency's enforcement and arrest operations at homes and residences.

Broward Bulldog v. DOJ (S.D. Fla.) -- ruling that FBI performed adequate search for records concerning the 9/11 Review Commission, and that it properly withheld or redacted certain, but not all, 28 disputed documents.  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued May 11, 2017

Brozzo v. U.S. Dep't of Educ. (N.D.N.Y.) -- concluding that agency met its burden of demonstrating that requested loan documents were not "agency records," because records were not created or obtained by agency and were not under its control.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued May 9, 2017

Aqualliance v. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming district court's decision that agency properly withheld information relating to water-well construction, completion, depth, and location" pursuant to Exemption 9.  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued May 8, 2017

Widi v. McNeil (D. Me.) -- reluctantly ordering EOUSA to perform segregability analysis on four pages of attorney work product documents and to clarify the nature of certain documents withheld under Exemption 7(C), but otherwise denying plaintiff's request for reconsideration.

Cameranesi v. U.S. Dep't of Def. (9th Cir.) -- in a two-to-one decision, affirming the district court's ruling that names of foreign students and instructors at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) are exempt from disclosure under Exemption 6.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued May 2 to May 4, 2017

May 4, 2017

Allied Progress v. CFPB (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff's request for injunctive relief mandating expedited processing and production of documents concerning agency's "Prepaid Rule."  

May 3, 2017

Kinney v. CIA (W.D. Wash.) -- determining that CIA properly refused to confirm or deny existence of records concerning alleged operative pursuant to Exemption 1.  

May 2, 2017

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. DOJ (S.D.N.Y.) -- ruling that government properly relied on work-product privilege under Exemption 5 to withhold in full records pertaining to DOJ's policy on giving notice to criminal defendants and others against whom it intends to use evidence derived from warrantless surveillance. 

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued May 1, 2017

N.Y. Times v. CIA (S.D.N.Y.) -- awarding plaintiff $51,909.86 in attorney's fees and costs in case where CIA withdrew its Glomar response late in litigation and released portions of three reports concerning chemical weapons in Iraq.   Notably, the court declined to adopt CIA's argument that the reasonableness of its legal position automatically outweighed other three "entitlement" factors that plaintiff's favor.   

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.