Court opinion issued Jan. 12, 2018

Ctr. for Pub. Integrity v. U.S. Dep't of Energy (D.D.C) -- concluding on motion for renewed summary judgment that: (1) agency properly relied on Exemption 4 to withhold attorney-client privileged communications between company and its legal counsel, except those portions that agency officially disclosed through public releases; and (2) agency provided sufficient justification for redacting identifying information of agency and company personnel under Exemption 7(C), except for names that agency officially acknowledged through FOIA disclosures.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued Jan. 11, 2018

Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) records concerning agency's use of certain electronic devices during Secretary Clinton's tenure did not meet asserted "government misconduct" exception to deliberative process privilege; and (2) agency needed to clarify whether it had reviewed and released in full emails recovered by FBI in October 2016.  

Kanaya v. Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm & Explosives (D.D.C.) -- dismissing case because ATF averred that it never received plaintiff's request before lawsuit and plaintiff was unable to show that he mailed the request to an address associated with ATF. 

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued Jan. 10, 2018

Cornucopia Inst. v. Agric. Mktg. Serv. (D.D.C.) -- ruling that plaintiff was eligible and entitled to attorney's fees and costs, but reducing award from $41,965.73 sought by plaintiff to $12,145.83 due to excessive charges. 

Brennan Ctr. for Justice v. U.S. Dep't of State (S.D.N.Y.) -- granting plaintiff's motion to expedite production of travel ban records and Vaughn Index because agency had not released a single record in six months and it failed to show that meeting new scheduled would be impractical.  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued Jan. 5, 2018

Rocky Mountain Wild, Inc. v. U.S. Forest Serv. (10th Cir.) -- affirming district court's decision that documents prepared by contractor and never seen by agency are not "agency records," rejecting relevance of agency's reliance on documents or its ownership rights. 

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued Jan. 4, 2018

Gatore v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- ordering in camera review after finding that agency's supplemental declarations failed to sufficiently explain whether agency released all non-exempt segregable material from asylum assessments.

James Madison Project v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(A) in refusing to confirm or deny the existence of synopsis of Trump-Russia Dossier and related records; and (2) CIA, NSA, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence properly withheld synopsis pursuant to Exemptions 1 and 3, and properly refused to confirm or deny existence of remaining records pursuant to same exemptions.  Notably, the court rejected plaintiff's arguments that statements made by President Trump and former executive branch officials precluded summary judgment in government's favor.      

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued Jan. 3, 2018

Cole v. Rochford (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff's request for discovery regarding Federal Emergency Management Agency's search for records about World Trade Center's collapse on September 11, 2001, because agency had not yet filed its motion for summary judgment with supporting declarations.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued Dec. 29, 2017

Parker v. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (D.D.C.) -- on second round of briefing in dispute over emails from 1998 to 2006, finding that agency's search of one Special Agent's email remained inadequate in several respects but that agency adequately explained its email backup system.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued Dec. 21 & 22, 2017

Dec. 22, 2017

Eil v. DEA (1st Cir.) -- reversing judgment of district court because it failed to consider privacy interests of decedents' family members and holding that Exemption 7(C) permitted DEA to withhold medical and death-related records introduced as exhibits by government at criminal trial of Dr. Paul Volkman. A dissenting judge agreed that the lower court employed incorrect standard, but opined that summary judgment.was precluded by a genuine factual dispute. 

Dec. 21, 2017

Gatore v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- ruling that plaintiffs were eligible for and entitled to attorney's fee and costs for substantially prevailing in case involving FOIA requests for assessments of asylum officers.  In reaching its decision, the court notably held that it was unreasonable for DHS to withhold non-responsive information from a responsive document. per recent D.C. Circuit case law.  The court also held that plaintiff failed to demonstrate the "LSI Laffey Matrix" reflects the prevailing hourly rates for attorneys better than the "USAO Matrix." 

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinions issued Dec. 19 & 20, 2017

Dec. 20, 2017

Whitaker v. Dep't of Commerce (D. Vt.) -- concluding that: (1) First Responder Authority Network (FirstNet)is wholly exempt from FOIA pursuant to section 1426(d) of Title 47; (2) National Telecommunications & Information Administration and main Department of Commerce both properly declined to perform searches because they were likely to be futile; (3) Department did not have improper practice or policy of referring requests to FirstNet.  

Dec. 19, 2017

Am. Ctr. for Equitable Treatment v. OMB (D.D.C.) -- ruling that agency's search was inadequate because: (1) agency failed to sufficiently explain why it did not search for records requested prior to January 20, 2009, and  (2) agency failed to use certain commonly used terms as search terms.  

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.

Court opinion issued Dec. 18, 2017

Elec. Privacy Info. Ctr. v. Office of the Dir. of Nat'l Intelligence (D.D.C.) -- ruling that agency properly relied on Exemptions 1 and 3 (National Security Act of 1947) to withhold, in its entirety, an assessment of U.S. Intelligence Community ("IC") compiled by agency regarding Russia's attempts to influence 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here.