FOIA News: Dep't of Transportation releases annual FOIA report for 2020

The U.S. Department of Transportation appears to be the first cabinet agency out of the gate in posting its annual FOIA report for fiscal year 2020. DOT reported that it received 14632 requests during the year and that it processed 15433 requests, reducing the number of “pending” requests from 6368 to 5567. The number of “backlogged” requests— i.e., legally overdue—nevertheless rose from 3578 to 4272, a nearly 20 percent increase.

FOIA News: FOIA Project Analysis Shows Increasing Backlog of Pending District Court FOIA Decisions

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied: Judges Fail To Rule in a Timely Manner on FOIA Cases

By FOIA Project Staff, The FOIA Project, Feb 3, 2021

The latest case-by-case court records show that even after filing suits, FOIA requesters are facing longer and longer delays before their cases are decided. Indeed, the backlog of pending FOIA court cases is growing much faster than the increase in litigation because judges are failing to rule in a timely manner and allowing cases to drag on for years.

As of the end of FY 2020, the number of FOIA cases pending in the federal courts climbed to 1,683. This is more than three and a half times the number of pending cases ten years ago in FY 2010 when the pending court caseload was just 467.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Supreme Court petitioned to consider Clinton email case

Justices Urged To Take Up Clinton Deposition Email Case

Law360, Feb. 2, 2021

A conservative watchdog is gunning to revive a case seeking to depose Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server as secretary of state, telling the U. S. Supreme Court a D. C. Circuit panel erroneously overturned a trial court's discovery order and granted Clinton "extraordinary relief. " The 38-page petition for writ of certiorari docketed Monday emerged from Judicial Watch Inc. 's Freedom of Information Act suit, which demanded U. S. Department of State records relating to the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. The full circuit court's bench in October declined to reconsider a three-judge panel's August order releasing Clinton from deposition..

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription).

See petition here.

FOIA News: EEOC to launch new FOIA software

EEOC TO LAUNCH NEW FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA) SOFTWARE

Beginning Feb. 1, Requesters Can Initiate New FOIA Requests and Appeals Using New Tool

EEOC Press Release, Jan. 29, 2021

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that, effective Feb. 1, it will begin using a new software system (“the 2021 system”) to receive and process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and appeals, replacing the system it has used since 2015.

As part of EEOC's ongoing commitment to transparency and accountability, FOIA requesters will continue to be able to monitor their requests and appeals online and exchange correspondence and documents with EEOC electronically.  While EEOC posts many agency documents on its website, and in its online FOIA public reference room, individuals can submit FOIA requests for other records.

Read more here.

FOIA News: OGIS Publishes COVID-19 FOIA Website Review Follow-up

OGIS Publishes COVID-19 FOIA Website Review Follow-up

By C. Lemelin, Office of Government Information Services, Jan. 28, 2021

OGIS is pleased to announce publication of our latest report which examines whether agencies are following the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Information Policy (OIP) guidance encouraging them to post alerts on their websites indicating how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting their FOIA operations. The results of this assessment, for which OGIS reviewed 305 agency and department FOIA websites, shows that 47 percent of the federal FOIA websites we reviewed alert requesters to changes in their FOIA processing due to the pandemic. Generally, agencies that receive a higher volume of FOIA requests are more likely to have COVID alerts on their FOIA websites than agencies that receive fewer FOIA requests. Read our report the findings and download the spreadsheet of our findings.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Gov't ordered to pay attorney's fees in PPP loan case

Ballard Spahr Wins $122K in Legal Fees in FOIA Suit Over PPP Loan Secrecy

The open records lawsuit ultimately forced the Trump administration to released detailed information about who received PPP loans.

By Nate Robson, Nat’l Law Journal, January 21, 2021

Ballard Spahr will receive $122,347 in legal fees for its work in an open records lawsuit that forced the U.S. government to release detailed information about who received hundreds of millions of dollars through a COVID-19 emergency loan program.

The law firm asked for nearly $154,842 in fees and costs, but U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia on Thursday said Ballard Spahr failed to support its billing rates and hours worked, and subsequently shaved off nearly $32,000

Read more here.

FOIA News: Environmentalists seek FOIA reforms

Greens push Congress for stronger FOIA protections

By Kevin Bogardus, E&E News, Jan. 15, 2021

Environmental groups, drawing from their battles for public records with the Trump administration, are calling on Congress to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act.

Fourteen green organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, the Sierra Club and the Western Values Project, sent a letter yesterday to House and Senate lawmakers with recommendations on how to improve the more than 50-year-old transparency law.

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription)

FOIA News: ICYMI, FOIA Project issues litigation study

When FOIA Goes to Court: 20 Years of Freedom of Information Act Litigation by News Organizations and Reporters

FOIA Project, Jan. 13th, 2021

The news media are powerful players in the world of government transparency and public accountability. One important tool for ensuring public accountability is through invoking transparency mandates provided by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In 2020, news organizations and individual reporters filed 122 different FOIA suits[1] to compel disclosure of federal government records—more than any year on record according to federal court data back to 2001 analyzed by the FOIA Project. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: D.C. Circuit hears “Fake News” case

DC Circ. Dubious Of FBI FOIA Claims In Fake News Case

Law 360, Jan. 12, 2021

Two D. C. Circuit judges expressed skepticism Tuesday that the FBI adequately searched for records concerning agents' alleged practice of impersonating journalists, suggesting that the agency did not fully explain the purported harm that disclosure of certain documents requested by media organizations under the Freedom of Information Act would cause. Government attorney Joseph F. Busa maintained during oral arguments that the agency appropriately invoked a FOIA exemption to withhold records sought by media advocacy group Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Associated Press.

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription).

Listen to the oral argument here.

FOIA News: Litigation attorney wanted by FBI

The Department of Justice published a job vacancy today for a FOIA litigation attorney at the FBI.. The announcement does not provide an application deadline.