Court opinions issued July 18, 2018

Wild Horse Freedom Fed'n v. U.S. Dep't of the Interior (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) Bureau of Land Management failed to perform adequate search for various records pertaining to Wild Horse and Burro Program; (2)  agency properly withheld certain (but not all) information from one exhibit pursuant to Exemption 5, and that redactions on second exhibit could not be reviewed until agency provided court with clean copy.

W. Values Project v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- holding that government improperly issued Glomar response based on Exemption 5 for request pertaining to Office of Legal Counsel opinions, and that it performed reasonable search for remaining requested records.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinions issued July 17, 2018

Judicial Watch v. DHS (D.C. Cir.) -- in a 2-1 decision, reversing district court's decision that plaintiff's complaint failed to adequately allege “policy or practice” claim against Secret Service based on history of delayed responses.  

Trautman v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- determining that National Archives & Records Administration failed to adequately describe search of three agency offices for records pertaining to investigation of former Archivist Archivist of the United States, Allen Weinstein.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinion issued July 12, 2018

Brown v. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) emails sent by State Department to Hillary Clinton's private attorney were not considered in public domain; and (2) State Department properly withheld records pursuant to deliberative process, attorney work-product, and attorney-client privileges.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinions issued July 10-11, 2018

July 11, 2018

Kuntz v. U.S Dep't of Justice (D. N.D.) -- in first published FOIA opinion from North Dakota district in more than 14 years, ruling that FBI's full disclosure of memorandum with North Dakota Attorney General rendered case moot. 

July 10, 2018

Ctr. for Investigative Reporting v. DOJ (N.D. Cal.) -- finding that: (1) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives failed to perform reasonable search for certain firearms tracing records; (2) ATF was not required to produce new documents to satisfy plaintiff's request; and (3) ATF properly withheld non-statistical aggregate data from trace database pursuant to Exemption 3.  

Elliott v. USDA (D. Md.) -- dismissing case after determining that government never received plaintiff-inmate's FOIA request concerning government's jurisdiction over certain property. 

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

Court opinions issued July 5, 2018

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. DOJ (2nd Cir.) -- vacating district court's ruling that government had acknowledged certain information pertaining to drone strikes, because ruling was "unnecessary" and posed "risk of injury to important security interests of the United States."  

Powell v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- finding that agency performed reasonable search for tax records, except for plaintiff's "K-1 information as it relates to Form 706 from the William A. Powell Estate."

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here.   

Court opinions issued July 3, 2018

Powell v. U.S. Dep't of Treasury (D.D.C.) -- concluding that Office of Foreign Assets Control performed reasonable search for records pertaining to plaintiff over thirty-year period.

Middle Eastern Forum v. U.S. Dep't of the Treasury (D D.C.) -- holding that IRS improperly refused to search for third-party records, noting that plaintiff's request sought only "non-return" information and that it was reasonably described.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here.   

Court opinions issued June 29-30, 2018

June 30, 2018

Braun v. USPS (D.D.C.) -- finding that agency performed reasonable searches for investigatory records concerning plaintiff and that agency properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 3, 6, and 7(C).

June 29, 2018

N.Y. Times v. CIA (S.D.N.Y.) -- ruling that CIA properly relied on Exemption 1 and 3 in refusing to confirm or deny existence of records concerning program to arm Syrian rebels, and that public statements by President Trump and U.S. Army general did not constitute official acknowledgments of program.   

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here.    

Court opinions issued June 27, 2018

LAF v. Dep't of Veterans Affairs (N.D. Ill.) -- holding that plaintiff adequately pled that agency has unlawful practice of processing first-party requests for veterans claims files solely under Privacy Act.

Am. Civil Liberties Union v. DOD (S.D.N.Y.) -- ruling that White House press secretary's public statements precluded CIA from refusing to confirm or deny existence of certain records concerning government raid in Yemen.  

Heffernan v. HHS (D.D.C.) -- determining that agency did not show that it performed reasonable searches for two of four categories of records concerning NIH's Department of Spiritual Ministry, and that agency adequately justified its use of Exemption 5 (deliberative process privilege) to withhold all disputed records except for draft press release.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here.    

Court opinion issued June 26, 2018

Shapiro v. DOJ (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming district court's decision that FBI properly withheld records pertaining to deceased Internet activist Aaron Swartz pursuant to Exemptions 3, 6, 7(C), and 7(E), but remanding portion of case pertaining to redacted records disclosed to plaintiff following appellate oral arguments.  

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here.    

Court opinion issued June 25, 2018

Higgs v. U.S. Park Police (S.D. Ind.) -- in case involving records of death-row-plaintiff's triple homicide, concluding that: (1)  government properly invoked Exemption 7(D) to withhold source information from FBI interviews, but that Exemption 7(C) withholdings were invalid because government failed to show third parties were still living after passage of 22 years; and (2) government improperly relied on Exemption 7(E) to withhold National Crime Information Center reports and ballistics reports.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 available here.