Court opinions issued Mar. 1, 2019

Pronin v. BOP (D.D.C.) -- determining that agency failed to adequately justify its searches and/or withholdings in response to plaintiff’s three requests for complete lists of names and titles of agency staff at three prisons.

Reporters Comm. for Freedom Press v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- holding that FBI improperly relied on Exemption 7(E) in refusing to confirm or deny records concerning its impersonation of filmmakers, reasoning that FBI’s investigative technique was well known to the public and that the effectiveness of FBI’s technique would not be impaired by confirming or denying existence of records.

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

Court opinion issued Feb. 28, 2019

Animal Welfare Inst. v. Nat'l Oceanic & Atmospheric Admin. (D.D.C.) -- finding that NOAA properly relied on attorney-client and work-product privileges to withhold draft legal memorandum concerning enforcement of permitting rules for orca whale known as Tilikum; noting that those privileges were not waived when NOAA shared memorandum with other agencies because they shared common legal interests.

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

Court opinion issued Feb. 27, 2019

Protect Democracy Project v. HHS (D.D.C.) — ruling that HHS failed to justify its use of the deliberative process privilege to withhold records concerning the discontinuation of advertising on government healthcare website, but that it properly withheld records pursuant to the attorney-client privilege.

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

Court opinion issued Feb. 26, 2019

Pena-Martinez v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- finding that FBI did not justify Glomar response to request for alleged informant records because it failed to address facts indicating that the alleged informant testified as government witness during plaintiff’s trial and was referred to as an informant.

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

Court opinions issued Feb. 19, 2019

Krocka v. Exec. Office for U.S. Attorneys (D.D.C.) -- (1) reserving decision on whether agency performed adequate search for criminal records concerning plaintiff, because agency failed to “say the ‘magic words’ that it “searched all locations likely to contain responsive documents”; (2) finding that agency properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 3 (FRCrP 6(e)); 5 (attorney work-product); 7(C), and 7(D),

Brick v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that FBI properly withheld records concerning Eleanor Roosevelt’s travel to Soviet Union pursuant to Exemption 3 (Nat’l Sec. Act of 1947) and Exemption 7(E).

Stein v. SEC (D.D.C.) — finding that SEC performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff and that its reliance on Exemption 7(A) was proper because plaintiff’s criminal and civil cases were on appeal.

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

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee to meet Mar. 20th

The FOIA Advisory Committee will next meet on March 20, 2019, from 10am to 1pm, per a Federal Register notice scheduled to be published on February 19, 2019. As always, the meeting will be live-streamed on the National Archives’ YouTube channel at https:// www.youtube.com/user/usnational archives. Meeting material will be posted online at https:// www.archives.gov/ogis/foia-advisorycommittee/2018-2020-term/meetings.

Court opinions dated Feb. 12, 2019

Mabie v. USMS (S.D. Ill.) -- determining that Marshal’s Service performed adequate search for records pertaining to surveillance system installed at federal courthouse and that agency properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 7(E) and 7(F).

Edelman v. SEC (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff’s motion for attorney’s fees even though plaintiff substantially prevailed in underlying litigation, because agency’s actions were reasonable and no other entitlement factors favored plaintiff.

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

Court opinion issued Feb. 8, 2019

Allen v. BOP (D.D.C.) -- determining that agency conducted reasonable search for plaintiff’s prison records and properly relied on Exemptions 7(C), 7(E) and 7(F), except for use of Exemption 7(F) to withhold Central Inmate Monitoring information.

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

Court opinion issued Feb. 7, 2019

Lynn v. NARA (D.D.C.) -- holding that agency rightfully withheld CIA-generated records pertaining to the Grombach Organization pursuant to Exemption 1 and 3.

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

Court opinions issued Feb. 6, 2019

Winn v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- determining that FBI properly construed scope of plaintiff’s three requests to be limited to records concerning plaintiff, and that agency performed adequate search and segregability review.

Curran v. USPS (E.D. Wis.) -- ruling that: (1) internet usage records of agency employees constituted agency records and were required to be released absent personally identifying information; (2) agency improperly relied on Exemption 6 to withhold “supervisor observation logs,” which generally describe what was occurring in agency computer lab and hallway; and (3) agency properly withheld records of investigation and discipline of low-level agency employee.

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