Court opinions issued Dec. 14, 2018

Jordan v. U.S. Dep't of Labor (W.D. Mo.) -- dismissing part of plaintiff’s lawsuit concerning records that are subject of plaintiff’s concurrent FOIA lawsuit in U.S. District Court for District of Columbia.

Rodriguez v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- ruling on renewed summary judgment motions that Criminal Division performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff’s criminal case, and that the Criminal Division and Executive Office for United States properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 5, 6, 7(C), 7(D), and 7(F).

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

Court opinion issued Dec. 13, 2018

Anderson v. BOP (D.D.C.) -- finding that Federal Bureau of Prisons performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff, (who did not contest BOP’s summary judgment motion), and that it properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 6, 7(C), 7(E), and 7(F).

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

Court opinion issued Dec. 10, 2018

Clavito v. U.S. Dep't of Veterans' Affairs (E.D. Cal. ) -- dismissing case as moot after determining that VA released in full all requested records pertaining to plaintiff’s overpayment of benefits debt.

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

Court opinion issued Dec. 7, 2018

Democracy Forward Found. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- granting Office of Information Policy’s request for a stay until January 13, 2019 to process records from the Office of Legal Policy concerning appellate court nominees. In arriving at its decision, the court considered that OIP has seen a significant spike in requests over the past two years and that it has been sufficiently diligent in processing requests.

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

Court opinions issued Dec. 6, 2018

Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- in a blistering opinion against the government, ordering the parties “to meet and confer to plan discovery into whether [Hillary] Clinton used a private email to stymie FOIA, whether State’s attempts to settle [this] case in late 2014 and 2015 amounted to bad faith, and whether State’s subsequent searches have been adequate.”

Sorin v. DOJ (2nd Cir.) (summary order) -- affirming district court’s decision that government properly withheld records pertaining to plaintiff’s criminal prosecution pursuant to Exemption 3, in conjunction with Federal Rule of Criminal of Criminal Procedure 6(e); Exemption 5 (attorney work-product privilege); and Exemption 7(C).

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

Court opinion issued Dec. 4, 2018

Am. Ctr. for Law & Justice v. U.S. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- ruling that agency properly relied on Exemption 1 to withhold parts of five-page report concerning activities of the “United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.”

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

Court opinion issued Nov. 29, 2018

Planned Parenthood v. Azar (W.D. Wash.) -- in “reverse-FOIA” case, ruling that plaintiff was entitled to preliminary injunction protecting its grant application because agency’s decision to release it appeared to be arbitrary and capricious and disclosure would likely cause irreparable harm.

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

Court opinion issued Nov. 26, 2018

Smart-Tek Serv. Solutions Corp. v. IRS (S.D. Cal.) -- determining that: (1) IRS performed adequate search for plaintiff’s administrative files; (2) IRS properly withheld return information of plaintiff’s corporate alter ego pursuant to Exemption 3, in conjunction with 26 U.S.C. § 6103(a); and (3) IRS properly withheld third-party information pursuant to Exemption 6 and plaintiff’s “risk score” pursuant to Exemption 7(E).

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

Court opinions issued Nov. 23, 2018

Hajro v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs. (9th Cir.) (unpublished) -- affirming district’s ruling that plaintiff failed to demonstrate that he personally filed FOIA requests that were delayed and, therefore, he did not have standing to bring “pattern or practice” claim. In rejecting the adequacy of plaintiff’s duplicative declaration, the Court amusingly remarked that “[w]hatever salience the adage ‘if at first you don't succeed—try, try again’ has in daily life, expecting identical arguments to yield different results is a poor strategy for success in our court.”

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

Court opinion issued Nov. 20, 2018

Phillips v. DOJ (E.D. Cal.) -- dismissing pro se prisoner’s amended Complaint without prejudice because plaintiff failed to show that his request was filed within the statutory deadline.

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