Court opinions issued Sept. 27, 2019

NY Times v. DOJ (2nd Cir.) -- concluding that Attorney General Holder’s public statements waived attorney work- product privilege with respect to portion of only one of five memoranda regarding CIA treatment of detainees overseas, reversing in part and affirming in part district court’s decision that Holder had “expressly adopted” reasoning of all memoranda.

Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs. (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) Army Corp of Engineers and U.S. Customs & Border Protection performed adequate search for records provided to President-elect Trump’s Transition Team about construction of wall on southern border, and (2) all disputed withholdings were justified under Exemptions 5, 6, and 7(E).

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 25, 2019

S. Entl. Law Ctr. v. Mulvaney (W.D. Va.) -- determining that Office of Management and Budget failed to perform adequate search for agency reform plans and did not provide court with sufficient information to determine whether OMB properly withheld records pursuant to deliberative process privilege.

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

Court opinions issued Sept. 24, 2019

Judicial Watch, Inc. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- concluding that DOJ failed to meet its burden to detail the reasonably foreseeable harms that would occur if agency disclosed emails of Sally Yates, which DOJ withheld under Exemption 5 (deliberative process privilege).

Prop. of People, Inc. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) FBI needed to submit Vaughn Index in order for court determine whether FBI properly issued partial Glomar response under Exemptions 6 & 7(C) to protect certain records about Congressman Dana Roherbacher; and (2) FBI did not perform adequate search for other records pertaining to Congressman Rohrabacher.

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

Court opinions issued Sept. 23, 2019

Knight First Amendment Inst. at Columbia Univ. v. DHS (S.D.N.Y.) -- granting in part and denying in part government’s use of Exemptions 5 and 7(E) to withhold records concerning the government’s authority to deport individuals from the United States based on their speech, beliefs, or associations.

Broward Bulldog, Inc. v. DOJ (11th Cir.) -- (1) affirming district court’s decision that FBI performed adequate search for records concerning 9/11 Review Commission and that agency properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 1, 3, 5, and 7(E); and (2) reversing district court’s decision that FBI improperly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 7(C) and that FBI properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 7(D).

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 20, 2019

Morris v. SEC (D.D.C) -- ruling that agency was not required to perform search for requested records concerning child custody proceedings in Texas state courts, because agency sufficiently explained why it would not possess such records and plaintiff offered no contrary evidence.

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 19, 2019

Judicial Watch v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- holding that plaintiff failed to file administrative appeal with respect to request for FBI’s investigatory records concerning former Secretary Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email account, noting that FBI’s letter and two dozen interim productions and representations from two virtually identical lawsuits with same counsel constituted final determination to comply with plaintiff’s FOIA request.

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 15, 2019

Am. Small Bus. League v. DOD (N.D. Cal.) -- granting plaintiff’s request to depose Lockheed Martin declarants in Exemption 4 dispute, because declarants provided contradictory statements as to whether the company customarily keeps requested records confidential.

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

Court opinions issued Sept. 13, 2019

Majuc v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that DOJ failed to show that Exemption 7(A) protected records of criminal investigation into company that pleaded guilty in 2014 for evading economic sanctions against Sudan, Iran, and Cuba.

Silbaugh v. Pizzella (W.D. Wash.) -- finding that Department of Labor performed reasonable search for records responsive to plaintiff’s multiple requests and that it did not withhold any records.

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 12, 2019

Heartland All. for Human Needs & Human Rights v. ICE (D.D.C.) -- concluding that: (1) agency performed adequate search of field offices but not its program offices for records concerning detention beds and bond amounts for detainees; (2) agency did not justify its withholdings pursuant to Exemption 5 and failed to provide Vaughn Index for disputed bond-related records; and (3) OMB properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege.

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

Court opinions issued Sept. 10-11, 2019

Sept. 11, 2019

Barry v. Koskinen (D. N.J.) -- determining that plaintiff failed to administratively appeal from IRS denial of his request for oaths, qualifications, and bonds of certain agency employees.

Sept. 10, 2019

Wen Dong Zhao v. U.S. Dep't of State (2nd Cir.) -- summary order affirming district court’s decision that agency performed reasonable search for research documents that plaintiff allegedly provided to the United States Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand in 2003.

Long v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- of note, holding that CIA had not demonstrated that writing new computer code to locate responsive records in its FOIA database or compiling resulting records would constitute creation of new records or be “extremely burdensome.”

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