FOIA News: Anne Weismann steps down from CREW

Anne Weismann, FOIA ‘Guru,’ Exits Watchdog Group

Weismann is no longer the chief FOIA counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, but will continue to serve as outside counsel in some of the group’s litigation.

By Jacqueline Thomsen, Nat’l Law Journal,  September 02, 2020

Anne Weismann, the chief FOIA counsel for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, has stepped down from her full-time role at the organization.

In recent weeks, Weismann has filed motions withdrawing from several federal public records lawsuits filed by the organization. She was listed on a brief filed in a CREW case Wednesday, but without her affiliation with the group and using a personal email address. She is no longer listed on the organization’s staff page.

CREW spokesperson Jordan Libowitz confirmed Wednesday that Weismann is no longer with the group full-time, but is working as an outside counsel on certain cases. Weismann declined to comment further.

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FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee to meet Sept. 10th

The NAtional Archives and Records Administration has announced that the Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee will meet virtually on September 10, 2020, from 1pm to 4pm. This will be the first meeting of the new committee term. The purpose of this meeting will be to introduce all of the members, hear a report from the co-chairs of the Chief FOIA Officers' Council Technology Committee, and discuss topics for the Committee to consider in the next two years. Registration information is available here.

FOIA News: Exemption 4 litigation trends

We Are Beginning To See Effects Of High Court FOIA Ruling

By Kevin Barnett & Nooree Lee, Law360, Aug. 25, 2020

It has been a year since the U. S. Supreme Court's Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media crafted  a new standard for determining confidential information exempt from disclosure under Freedom of  Information Act Exemption 4. 

Trial courts have started to weigh in on how the decision will impact the FOIA  landscape.  From these  early  decisions, three trends have emerged: (1) courts have protected more  information than previously  protected; (2) courts have required agencies to show confidentiality using much  the same information  required under the old standard; and (3) courts have been reluctant to tackle open  questions  about whether  to require agencies. . .

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FOIA News: Gov't FOIA jobs available

• Dep’t of the Interior, Supervisory Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS 14), Virginia, closes 8/24/2020

• Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS 11), Illinois, closes 8/24/2020

• Nat’l Oceanic & Atmospheric Admin., Gov’t Info. Specialist (ZA 4), Maryland, closes 8/25/2020

• Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS 7-9), Florida, closes 8/26/2020

• Ctr. for Disease Control & Prevention, Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS 9), Georgia, closes 8/28/2020

• Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS 12), New York, closes 8/31/2020

• Fed. Res. Sys., Gov’t Info. Specialist (FR 24-26), D.C., closes 9/4/2020

• Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, Gov’t Info. Specialist (GS 9), Texas, closes 9/11/2020

FOIA News: Registration open for FOIA Advisory Committee meeting

Join us Virtually for the September 10 FOIA Advisory Committee Meeting

Office of Gov’t Info. Serv.,, Aug. 20, 2020

Register now to join us virtually on Thursday, September 10, 2020, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. ET at the first meeting of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee’s 2020-2022 term. The meeting is open to the public; however, you must register to receive information for accessing the meeting online.

Following their introductions,  Committee members will hear reports from the co-chairs of the Chief FOIA Officers Council Technology Committee and returning Committee members before discussing topics for the Committee to consider in the next two years.

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA records posted by FBI cause angst

‘Wildly irresponsible’: FBI bashed for tweeting link to anti-Semitic ‘Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion’

By Jaclyn Peiser, Wash. Post, Aug. 20., 2020

For more than a century, the fabricated text “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” has advanced a persistent anti-Semitic trope: that Jews are plotting to take over the world. From Hitler to Henry Ford, rabid anti-Semites have long shared the notorious text.

On Wednesday, an FBI Twitter account did the same. An account called FBI Records Vault tweeted out a link to a PDF containing the anti-Semitic tome as well as FBI documents related to it, with no other context, leaving critics baffled and outraged.

The FBI later apologized and clarified the account is automated and sends links to records that have been made public via Freedom of Information Act requests.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Exemption 4 fails in non-FOIA contract case

In a non-FOIA case, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals concluded that Exemption 4 did not protect the U.S Department of Education's financial details concerning its claims that it overpaid on a student debt  collection contract. In reaching its decision, the Board noted that most of the information at issue originated from the Department, thus falling outside of Exemption 4. The Board further noted that the Department had waived its ability to rely on Exemption 4 because it voluntarily made the information publicly available in earlier filings in the case. Lastly, the Board found that the Department failed to show that disclosure would reasonably harm an Exemption 4-protected interest, rejecting Department’s argument that its “fear of discovery problems” in another case was sufficient.  

FOIA News: SCOTUS to hear Exemption 5 case on Nov. 2

Supreme Court Sets Argument Date for Sierra Club FOIA Case

By Ellen Gilmer, Bloomberg Law, Aug. 19, 2020, 1:23 PM

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Nov. 2 in a closely watched dispute over Endangered Species Act documents.

The court released the November schedule Wednesday, placing the case first for the month. The justices have a small environmental docket for the 2020 term so far, with just two cases on deck—though several more could be added.

• At issue in the endangered species case is whether the Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to hand over certain internal records that are labeled “drafts.” The dispute stems from a lower court order that said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife...

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FOIA News: Lawsuit seeks records about sale of NARA’s Seattle office

Washington AG sues for public records on National Archives closure

Daily World, Aug. 18, 2020

After six months with no reply from three federal agencies for public records on the closure of the National Archives at Seattle, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Monday sued them in federal court.

A fourth agency, the little-known, five-person Public Buildings Reform Board that made the recommendation for closure, on July 20 had demanded $65,400 “to redact the material for production to your office.”

Says Ferguson, “This is not a national security issue. What do they have to redact? It’s a property sale. It’s outrageous that after six months, they want the taxpayers of Washington to pay $65,000 so they can make redactions.”

Read more here.

FOIA News: ICE tries to put request on ice

DC Judge Calls ICE's 66-Year FOIA Doc Plan 'Unsatisfying'

Law360, Aug. 14, 2020

U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it will take 66 years to sift out the sensitive information from a round of immigration database documents that it has been ordered to turn over as part of a long-running records fight — unwelcome news to the D. C. federal judge overseeing the case. U. S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta said at a virtual status conference on Friday that he was very frustrated to hear the government's time estimate, particularly because  the parties are six years into the dispute over technical documents tied to two ICE database.

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