Court opinions issued Aug. 11, 2020

Nat’l Sec. Counselors v. CIA (D.C. Cir.) -- ruling that: (1) district court properly decided that CIA was not required to disclose list of FOIA requesters by fee category, because agency’s FOIA database did contain such information; (2) affirming district court’s decision that request to CIA seeking all records about IBM supercomputer named “Watson” imposed unreasonably burdensome search; and (3) DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel was not required to release additional portions of two agency legal opinions, rejecting argument that attorney-client privilege had been waived.

Boyd v. Trump (D.D.C.) -- finding that incarcerated pro se plaintiff improperly named various government individuals as defendants and failed to show that he submitted FOIA requests to any Executive Branch agency.

Langston v. DHS (D. Ariz.) -- concluding that DHS properly relied on Exemption 3, in conjunction with National Security Act, in refusing to confirm or deny existence of records about plaintiff.

Abakporo v. EOUSA (D.D.C.) — upon government’s unopposed renewed summary judgment, determining that EOUSA properly searched for and disclosed all records pertaining to specific grand jury records of interest to plaintiff.

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

Court opinions issued Aug. 10, 2020

Ossen LLC v. U.S. Cent. Command (2nd Cir.) -- reversing and vacating district court’s decision that DOD had previously disclosed--and thus had improperly withheld pursuant to Exemption --certain classified images of terrorist attacks in Iraq.

Carlborg v. Dep’t of the Navy (D.D.C.) -- finding that agency performed adequate search for records pertaining to plaintiff’s involuntary separation from the military and properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 5 and 6.

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

Court opinion issued Aug. 7, 2020

Lukas v. FCC (D.C. Cir.) (per curiam) -- holding that: (1) plaintiff failed to allege that FCC had “policy or practice” of failing to respond to FOIA appeals; (2) plaintiff forfeited his challenge to district court’s dismissal of his claim seeking declaration that Universal Service Administrative Company was not an agency for FOIA purposes, because he failed to address issue in his opposition brief; and (3) summarily affirming district court’s decision that agency properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 4, but sidestepping issue of whether disputed records were “agency records.”

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

Court opinions issued Aug. 6, 2020

Ctr. for Public Integrity v. DOD (D.D.C.) -- deferring ruling on government’s exemption claims and ordering government to submit for in camera review certain records pertaining to the “Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative” that were withheld under Exemption 5.

Abdulkader v. Trump (D.D.C) -- dismissing case because plaintiff sued wrong defendants and failed to show that any federal agency received proper FOIA request.

Whitey v. FBI (W.D. Wash.) -- ruling that FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(D) in refusing to confirm or deny existence of records indicating whether deceased individual was agency informant, and denying plaintiff’s request for discovery or in camera review.

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

Court opinions issued Aug. 5, 2020

Besson v. U.S. Dep’t of Commerce (D.D.C.) -- on renewed summary judgment, ruling that: (1) agency failed to demonstrate that names of contractor’s employees qualified as “commercial” information under Exemption 4; (2) agency properly withheld agreement with contractor pursuant to Exemption 4, except for portion of Statement of Work that might appear in public domain; (3) agency failed to establish that contractor’s names were protected under Exemption 6.

Frank LLP v. CFPB (D.D.C.) -- finding that agency properly relied on Exemptions 7(A), 7(C), and 7(E) to withhold agency transcripts of third-party testimony associated with certain enforcement actions.

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

Court opinions issued Aug. 3, 2020

Butt v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- determining that EOUSA performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff except for excluding U.S. Attorney from search, and that agency properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 5’s attorney work-product privilege.

Liounis v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- on remand from the D.C. Circuit, ruling that government performed reasonable search for grand jury records pertaining to plaintiff’s criminal case.

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

Court opinion issued July 31, 2020

Day v. U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury (D.D.C.) -- finding that plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies because he was unable to demonstrate that his request was received by IRS, which averred that it never received it.

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

Court opinion issued July 30, 2020

Eakin v. DOD (W.D. Tex.) -- granting plaintiff’s motion to amend his complaint to include FOIA request for additional Individual Deceased Personnel Files of World War II service members even though scheduling order’s amendment deadline in pending lawsuit lapsed three years ago.

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

Court opinion issued July 29, 2020

Gonzalez v. USCIS (S.D.N.Y.) — finding that government performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff and that it properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 7(E) and 7(F).

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

Court opinions issued July 27, 2020

Bloche v. DOD (D.D.C.) -- on renewed summary judgment, which plaintiffs did not dispute, ruling that Department of the Army had justified its use of deliberative process and attorney-client privileges to withhold one document concerning involvement of medical professionals in designing and implementing interrogation tactics.

Aguiar v. EOUSA (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff’s request for litigation costs because plaintiff did not obtain judicial relief or demonstrate that his lawsuit “substantially caused” agency to respond to his FOIA requests. In analyzing “catalyst theory” prong, the court noted that EOUSA had been in contact with plaintiff before his lawsuit, worked with him to narrow requests, and produced some documents.

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