FOIA News: Learning is fundamental, advises DOJ's Chief FOIA Officer

ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY GENERAL VANITA GUPTA HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF FOIA TRAINING AND NEW E-LEARNING RESOURCES

By DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Sept. 8, 2022

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, who also serves as the Department’s Chief FOIA Officer, recently issued a memorandum to agency Chief FOIA Officers and General Counsels emphasizing the importance of FOIA training, underscoring the Attorney General’s FOIA Guidelines issued earlier this year.  The memorandum highlights three new training modules that the Office of Information Policy (OIP) has made available to all agencies.   

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee to meet twice in September

The federal Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee will meet on Thursday, September 8, 2022, at 10:00 a.m., and again on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. The agendas and meeting materials are available here.

FOIA News: Plaintiff seeks to accelerate Volkswagen suit

VW, DOJ Rip Bid To Rush Jones Day Emission Docs FOIA Row

By Linda Chiem, Law360, Sept. 2, 2022

The U. S. Department of Justice and Volkswagen AG have said that a Loyola Marymount University professor cannot shortcut California federal court proceedings to force the release of a confidential Jones Day report on the German automaker's internal investigation into the 2015 emissions-cheating scandal. The DOJ and Volkswagen filed separate briefs Thursday opposing Lawrence P. Kalbers' recent request to expedite proceedings in his Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking to get the DOJ to publicly release Jones Day's findings — which have been kept under wraps for years — on how the "clean diesel" emissions-cheating scandal took shape.

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription).

FOIA News: SEC files SJM in "Crypto Conflict" case

SEC Seeks Early Win In FOIA Fight Over Crypto Conflict Docs

By Daniel Ducassi. Law360, Sept. 1, 2022

The Securities and Exchange Commission asked a Virginia federal judge on Wednesday to give it an early win in its records dispute with a watchdog group over documents that might reveal former high-ranking SEC officials' conflicts of interest associated with their oversight of cryptocurrency. The SEC said in a court filing that it has already given the group, Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research, all the documents it had originally asked for and which the commission could lawfully provide. The SEC argues that any withholding or redaction of documents was legally justified, and that its search process need not be perfect, just reasonably . . .

Read more here (accessible with free trial subscription).

Copy of Complaint here.

FOIA News: CATO gathers FOIA critics to air grievances

The CATO Institute will host an online discussion entitled FOIA and Government Transparency: A Report Card on September 22, 2022, See details here.

FOIA News: OIP issues summary/assessment of CFO reports

SUMMARY AND ASSESSMENT OF AGENCY 2022 CFO REPORTS ISSUED

By DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Aug. 30, 2022

Today the Office of Information Policy (OIP) is pleased to release its summary and assessment of agencies’ 2022 Chief FOIA Officer (CFO) Reports.  OIP’s 2022 summary and assessment focuses on steps agencies have taken to improve FOIA administration in five key areas:

• Applying a Presumption of Openness,

• Ensuring Agencies Have Effective Systems for Responding to Requests,

• Increasing Proactive Disclosures,

• Greater Utilization of Technology in FOIA Administration, and

• Improving Timeliness and Reducing Backlogs.

This past March marked the thirteenth year that agency CFOs submitted these reports to the Department of Justice. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: Monkey business at the FBI?

The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz Would Like a Word With the FBI

The group's last surviving member is suing the FBI after they failed to hand over band's J. Edgar Hoover-era FBI file

By Andy Green, Rolling Stone, Aug. 30, 2022

WHEN THE MONKEES launched their inaugural tour in 1967, they played to throngs of screaming teenagers – and at least one FBI informant. “During the concert, subliminal messages were depicted on the screen which, in the opinion of [informant’s name redacted], constituted ‘left wing intervention of a political nature,'” reads a document in the Monkees FBI file. “These messages and pictures were flashed of riots, in Berkley, anti-U.S. messages on the war in Vietnam, racial riots in Selma, Alabama, and similar messages which had unfavorable response[s] from the audience.”

This tiny portion of the band’s FBI file was released to the public a little over a decade ago, and now Micky Dolenz, the group’s sole surviving member, has filed a lawsuit against the FBI (See the full suit below). The 77-year-old musician is hoping to see the rest of the file after failing to get his hands on it via a Freedom of Information Act request. “This lawsuit is designed to obtain any records the FBI created and/or possesses on the Monkees as well as its individual members,” reads the suit. “Mr. Dolenz has exhausted all necessary required administrative remedies with respect to his [Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act] request.”

Read more here.

ICYMI, OGIS still interested in "still interested" letters

OGIS Is Yet Again Interested in “Still Interested” Letters

By Office of Gov’t Info. Serv., The FOIA Ombudsman, Aug. 22, 2022

As federal agencies approach the end of fiscal year 2022 in September, we know many are aiming to close old FOIA requests and reduce their FOIA backlogs. Some have begun to send requesters “still interested” letters to ensure that the information in a FOIA request is still being sought by the requester from the agency.

The Office of Information Policy (OIP) guidance on the issue advises agencies about “being mindful” in regard to the timelines for requesters to respond and indicate their level of interest. OIP updated this guidance in 2015 and included a series of procedures that agencies should use when sending “still interested” letters.

Read more here.

FOIA News: E-discovery tools for FOIA

How Tech-Assisted Review is Transforming FOIA

Government is beginning to adopt AI tools to expedite its obligation of records transparency.

By Katherine MacPhail, Gov’t CIO Mag., Aug. 24, 2022

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process has frequently been plagued with delays, but the massive surge in data production over the past decade means that this problem is only growing. Tackling all of the outstanding FOIA requests manually is not simply burdensome — it is nigh impossible.  

“None of us have time to read a petabyte of data in our lifetime,” said John Facciola, retired U.S. magistrate judge and Georgetown adjunct professor of law, during a Digital Government Institute 930gov panel Tuesday.

That’s where AI comes in. Agencies are turning to technology assisted review tools that were originally developed for the eDiscovery process.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Second Circuit limits scope of Exemption 4

Court Sides with Clinics on Freedom of Information Act Exemptions

By Yale Law Sch., YLS Today, Aug. 24, 2022

In a precedent-setting case, a court agreed with three First Amendment clinics that a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemption for confidential commercial information is not meant to protect confidentiality for the sake of confidentiality.

The Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic (MFIA) at Yale Law School, working with clinics at Cornell Law School and the SMU Dedman School of Law, brought the case.

Seife v. FDA concerns a journalist who requested clinical trial data from the Food and Drug Administration related to its approval of a drug. The FDA held that it could withhold the documents, which the drug maker deemed confidential, under an exemption for privileged business information. Now, an appeals court — the first to consider a standard imposed in 2016 — has ruled that agencies cannot withhold such information under this exemption simply because the information is confidential.  

Read more here.