Court opinion issued Feb. 12, 2024

Inst. for Energy Research v. FERC (D.D.C.) -- holding that: (1) FERC conducted an adequate search for calendars of two Commissioners; (2) with respect to FERC’s deliberative process privilege claims, the agency “failed to provide any details or explanation as to why each (or any) of the policy proposals, internal meetings, and external meetings redacted from the calendar concern predecisional material or what sort of “definable decision-making process” the agency aims to protect”; and (3) FERC properly withheld some records pursuant to Exemption 6, but it did not justify withholding the name of a lobbyist who met with a Commissioner or the names of “lower-level staff” on a categorical basis.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

Court opinion issued Feb. 5, 2024

Frost Brown Todd LLC v. Ctr. for Medicare & Medicaid Serv. (D.D.C.) -- deciding that: (1) of six requests, only the portion of one request reasonably described the records sought, resulting in dismissal of all claims based on the deficient requests; rejecting plaintiff’s arguments that two agency regulations precluded dismissal; and (2) plaintiff’s allegation that CMS had a pattern or practice of unreasonably delaying the release of non-exempt documents was sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

Court opinions issued Jan. 29, 2023

Wilson v. FBI (2nd Cir.) -- affirming district court’s decision denying plaintiff attorney’s fees after finding no “abuse of discretion” in lower court’s analysis of relevant “entitlement” factors; noting that although plaintiff was “eligible” for fees because district court had ordered FBI to conduct an additional search for records concerning plaintiff, FBI’s original decision not to search a particular database was reasonable given that no responsive records were located.

Schubert v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- (1) denying plaintiff’s motion to amend his complaint, because plaintiff impermissibly sought to expand the time scope of his request from nine months to 10 years; (2) FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(C) in refusing to confirm or deny records showing who accessed plaintiff’s criminal history; (3) FBI’s search for first-party records was not required by the request, but nevertheless finding that FBI’s voluntary search was adequate; and (4) Federal Bureau of Prisons performed adequate search despite also finding no records.

N.Y. Times v. FBI (S.D.N.Y.) -- following in camera review of report about “Havana Syndrome,” deciding that: (1) FBI properly redacted information concerning third parties pursuant to Exemption 7(C); and (2) FBI properly relied on Exemption 7(E) to redact certain portions of report, but it could not withhold the report in full using that exemption because one law enforcement technique was known to the public and the report’s introduction and conclusion did not reveal any techniques, procedures, or guidelines at all.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

Court opinion issued Jan. 25, 2024

Hensley v. DOJ (E.D. Ark.) -- concluding that FBI performed reasonable search for an alleged recording or transcript of agency’s interview of plaintiff prior to his indictment.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

Court opinion issued Jan. 22, 2024

Phillips v. U.S. Bureau of the Census (S.D.N.Y.) -- denying plaintiff’s request for attorneys’ fees and costs after finding that: (1) plaintiff was eligible for fees and costs because he obtained partial relief from a judicial order, specifically an agency file comparable to the file he requested by a date certain; and (2) plaintiff was not entitled to fees and costs because the agency was preparing to release records well in advance of plaintiff’s request and lawsuit, and because it reasonably denied plaintiff’s request.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

Court opinions issued Jan. 19, 2024

Bonner v. FBI (S.D.N.Y.) -- (1) denying plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration of court’s decision upholding FBI’s Exemption 3 claims regarding records related to Abu Zubaydah’s detention; (2) CIA properly invoked Exemption 3 in conjunction with the National Security Act to protect information, in whole or in part, within 711 redactions made by the FBI pursuant to Exemptions 6 and 7(C); and (3) FBI properly relied on Exemptions 6, 7(C), and 7(E) to withhold certain information not claimed by the CIA to fall under Exemption 3.

Hernandez, Jr. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- granting summary judgment to government after finding that Executive Office for United States Attorneys performed adequate search, plaintiff received all materials responsive to his request (notwithstanding initial miscounting of pages), and plaintiff did not challenge EOUSA’s redactions.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

Court opinions issued Jan. 18, 2024

Buzzfeed v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- granting government’s partial motion for reconsideration after concluding that plaintiff had failed to brief—and thus waived its right to dispute—the issue of whether Exemption 4 protects the identities of contractors that supply lethal injection drugs to the government; noting that plaintiff’s reply brief expressly stated that the only Exemption 4 issue concerned the withholding of other information; further rejecting plaintiff’s argument that a change in controlling law allowed plaintiff to revive the issue.

Gun Owners of America v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- finding that agency properly relied on Exemption 7(E) to withhold aerial-surveillance video of civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020, and that no foreseeable harm analysis was necessary because agency had met Exemption 7(E)’s circumvention of law requirement.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

Court opinion issued Jan. 16, 2024

Bloomberg v. FTC (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) FTC properly withheld all but three portions of its preconsummation warning letters pursuant to Exemption 3, in conjunction with 15 U.S.C. § 18a(h), specifically the identities of business filers that were already in the public domain, the dates of the warning letter; and boilerplate language; and (2) agency failed to show that Exemption 7(A) protected any of the three portions of the disputed letters set forth above.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

Court opinion issued Jan. 12, 2024

Children’s Health Def. v. FDA (D.D.C.) -- granting six-month Open America stay (with possibility of extension) in case concerning records of safety monitoring of COVID-19 vaccines, because agency faced “exceptional circumstances” from an “extraordinary production obligation” imposed by a Texas federal court—specifically 75,000 pages per month in January 2024 and 180,000 pages per month thereafter in response to a FOIA request related to Moderna’s adult COVID-19 vaccine.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

Court opinion issued Jan. 9, 2023

Cato v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- concluding that plaintiff was entitiled to relief from court’s judgment because of “newly discovered evidence” concerning the adequacy of FBI’s search, namely an FBI declaration filed in a 2018 case that contradicted the FBI’s position in the instant case regarding the agency’s Central Records System; reasoning, in part, that the public availability of FBI’s 2018 declaration on PACER was not fatal to plaintiff’s motion, because the declaration was not discoverable by a reasonably diligent search.

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