Montgomery v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- ruling that plaintiffs failed to present new evidence or show that court erred in deciding that agency had properly issued Exemption 7(D) Glomar in response to request for whistleblower records.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Democracy Forward Found. v. White House Office of Am. Innovation (D.D.C.) -- ruling that White House Office of American Innovation is not an “agency” subject to FOIA requests because it is “an entity within the White House Office which does not exercise substantial authority independent of the President.”
Grynberg v. DOJ (2nd Cir.) -- summarily affirming district court’s decision that agency properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 3 in conjunction with Rule 6(e) of Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the United States and Switzerland.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Ariz. Family Health P'ship v. HHS (D.D.C.) -- declining to issue injunction pending plaintiff’s appeal of court’s decision permitting agency to release redacted versions of plaintiff’s Title X grant applications.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Freedom Watch, Inc. v. FBI (D D.C.) -- dismissing suit after finding that plaintiff’s request, which sought records “that refer or relate in any way to collaboration and/or communication by and between the [FBI] and Southern Poverty Law Center” since 2008 -- was not reasonably described.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Sikes v. U.S. Dep't of the Navy (S.D. Ga.) -- on remand from 11th Circuit , which had held that agency could not refuse to process plaintiff’s duplicate request, ruling that: (1) plaintiff’s claim was not precluded by res judicata, (2) agency performed adequate and good faith search for records; and (3) plaintiff substantially prevailed and would be entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Phillips v. DOJ (E.D. Cal.) -- ruling that plaintiff had failed to submit any new evidence warranting reconsideration of court’s earlier decision that plaintiff failed to meet statute’s six-year statute of limitations, and noting that state trial court judge’s statement about plaintiff’s federal records did not override FOIA’s statute of limitations.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Sierra Club v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv. (9th Cir.) -- on government’s appeal, affirming in part and reversing in part district court’s decision that government improperly relied on deliberative process privilege to withhold certain records generated during EPA rulemaking process concerning cooling water intake structures. A dissenting panelist noted that the Second Circuit had recently permitted the government to withhold similar records as deliberative.
Anguiano v. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (N.D. Cal.) -- on ICE’s renewed motion for summary judgment, finding that: (1) ICE’s supplemental search for records was adequate; (2) ICE improperly relied on Exemption 7(E) to withhold portion of handbook on "The Law of Arrest, Search and Seizure for Immigration Officers"; and (3) ICE properly withheld portions of its “Enforcement and Removal Operations” training manual.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Gahagan v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs. (5th Cir.) -- affirming district court’s decision that pro se attorney are ineligible for attorney’s fees in FOIA cases, reversing the Circuit’s position held since 1983.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Elect. Privacy Inf. Ctr. v. IRS (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming district court’s decision that IRS properly withheld Donald Trump’s tax returns, but finding that proper basis for withholding was Exemption 3, in conjunction with 26 U.S.C. § 6103, rather than plaintiff’s failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
Reyes v. NARA (D.D.C.) -- awarding plaintiff $429.20 in costs and $19,939.20 in attorney’s fees (reduced from $29,450.80 due to duplicative efforts of plaintiff’s attorneys) for substantially prevailing in case concerning records of female Filipino guerrilla fighters during World War 2. Notably, the court held that its consent order memorializing the parties’ mutually agreed upon production schedule was sufficient to establish plaintiff’s eligibility for fees, rejecting NARA’s argument to the contrary.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.
Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. GSA (D.D.C.) -- ruling that General Services Administration performed inadequate search for records concerning the cancellation of plans to relocate FBI’s headquarters, and that agency’s Vaughn Index was too vague to permit court to evaluate withholdings.
Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.