Court opinions July 31, 2019

Gatson v. FBI (3rd Cir.) (not precedential) -- affirming district court’s decision that FBO properly withhold records concerning plaintiff’s criminal case pursuant to Exemption (7)(A) or, in the alternative, Exemptions 3, 5. 6, 7(C), 7(D) and 7(F).

Buckovetz v. Dep't of Navy (S.D. Cal.) -- denying government’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s claims that: (1) agency has improper policy and practice of closing duplicative requests from same requester as moot; and (2) agency failed to provide all records in response to a duplicative request.

Inst. for Policy Studies v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- holding that agency improperly construed definition of a “record” and ordering agency to process entire six-page intelligence report even though the subject of request was mentioned in only one portion of report.

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

Court opinions issued July 30, 2019

Sauter v. Dep't of State (D.D.C.) -- concluding that U.S. Air Force, and CIA performed adequate searches for records concerning Korean War pilot, shot down in 1951, and that Defense Intelligence Agency properly determined that any responsive records would be maintained by Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Am. Oversight v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that Office of Information Policy performed adequate search for records concerning U.S. Attorney John Huber’s investigation into claims of FBI misconduct and that plaintiff was not entitled to discovery notwithstanding DOJ’s initial mistakes in earlier declaration.

James Madison Proj. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- finding that government had not justified its reliance on Exemptions 1, 3, 7(D), and 7(E) to redact FISA applications concerning Carter page in light of White House press release stating that President had directed government to declassify those records.

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

Court opinions issued July 29, 2019

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. GSA (D.D.C.) -- concluding that GSA failed to perform adequate search for communications between agency and White House concerning renovation of FBI headquarters..

Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights v. DHS (D.D.C. 2019) -- ordering government to: (1) release location-identifying data in all produced records concerning Secure Communities program, (2) re-produce an earlier production in native format, and (3) release two Identifier codes in all produced records, which court found did not fall within Exemption 7(E).

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

Court opinion issued July 26, 2019

Mora-Villalpando v. ICE (W.D. Wash.) -- finding that: (1) ICE performed reasonable search for records concerning plaintiff, an undocumented immigrant and anti-ICE activist; (2) ICE failed to perform reasonable search for certain records concerning ICE enforcement operations against other immigration activists; and (3) plaintiff’s request for I-213 forms of other immigrations activists was not reasonably described in light of agency’s record system.

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

Court opinions issued July 25, 2019

Nat. Res. Def. Council v. EPA (S.D.N.Y.) -- holding that statute’s “foreseeable harm” standard “does impose an independent and meaningful burden on agencies” and rejecting “generic, across-the-board articulations of harm provided by the EPA as to a broad range of document types -- that "[r]elease of the withheld information would discourage open and frank discussion" and "have a chilling effect on the Agency's decision-making processes," -- does not sufficiently "explain how a particular Exemption 5 withholding would harm the agency's deliberative process."

Braun v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) FBI and CIA performed adequate searches for records concerning plaintiff and his father; (2) FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(E) in refusing to confirm or deny whether plaintiff’s name appeared on any watch lists; and (3) CIA properly invoked Exemptions 1 and 3 in refusing to confirm or deny existence of responsive classified records.

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

Court opinions issued July 24, 2019

Shapiro v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- following remand from D.C. Circuit, concluding that FBI properly redacted two-page document pursuant to Exemption 7(E).

King & Spalding v. HHS (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) on reconsideration of earlier decision, Exemptions 6 and 7(C) did not protect names of lawyer(s) who represented confidential source because they had “little or no privacy interest in their ‘representational capacity’ as counsel;” and (2) name of law firm that represented confidential source likewise was not exempt from disclosure.

Satterlee v. Comm’r of IRS (W.D. Mo.) -- determining that Bureau of the Fiscal Service performed reasonable search for records concerning plaintiff and did not withhold any responsive documents.

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

Court opinion issued July 22, 2019

N.Y. Times Co. v. DOJ (S.D.N.Y.) -- finding that DOJ properly relied on Exemption 7(A) to withhold certain records pertaining to Paul Manafort, Richard W. Gates, and Michael Flynn even though the existence of some investigations regarding those individuals are publicly known.

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

Court opinion issued July 19, 2019

Brooks v. Trump (D. Nev.) -- ruling that pro se prisoner improperly named President Trump as defendant in case in which Department of Justice allegedly failed to respond to plaintiff’s FOIA request.

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

Court opinions issued July 18, 2019

Charnock v. Barr (D.D.C.) -- determining that DOJ’s Civil Rights Division performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff’s disability complaint against the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Silbaugh v. Acosta (W.D. Wash.) -- ruling that plaintiff’s discovery request concerning Department of Labor’s search was premature because agency had yet not filed affidavits or declarations.

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

Court opinion issued July 17, 2019

Cause of Action Inst. v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- holding that court had subject-matter jurisdiction to consider whether records exchanged between IRS and U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Taxation were agency records.

[Note: FOIA Advisor’s Ryan Mulvey is working on this case]

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