FOIA News: Co-founder of OIP pens memoir

Daniel J. Metcalfe, who in 1981 co-founded the Department of Justice’s Office of Information and Privacy (now Office of Information Policy), has authored a 792-page book entitled Inside Justice: Secrecy at Work. Available this October, the book is described by its publisher as “at once a candid, highly readable memoir infused with sly humor, a deeply researched and argued call to action, and an unprecedented history of government secrecy that only one person could provide.”

Mr. Metcalfe left DOJ/OIP in 2007 after serving as its co-director for 24 years and as its sole director after Richard Huff retired in 2005. He shortly thereafter joined American University’s Washington College of Law and ran the school's Collaboration on Government Secrecy, which was an educational project devoted to openness in government.

FOIA News: Sensationalist FOIA plaintiff called out for “sensationalism” by DOJ

Think Tank Accused of 'Sensationalism' in Prince Harry Drugs Lawsuit

By Jack Royston, Newsweek, July 13, 2023

Lawyers for the Biden administration have accused a conservative think tank of "sensationalism" in the latest salvo of their war of words about Prince Harry's drug use.

Harry described his use of cannabis, magic mushrooms, cocaine and ayahuasca in his memoir Spare, prompting the Heritage Foundation to ask the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to publish his U.S. visa application.

The foundation wants to determine whether the Duke of Sussex disclosed his experiences with illegal substances in the paperwork and, if so, whether he was treated with favoritism.

However, the administration has declined its requests, made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA turns 57

The Freedom of Information Act was enacted on July 4, 1966, and became effective exactly one year later. For those interested in the evolution of the statute, which has been amended seven times, the legislative history is available on the Department of Justice’s website here.

FOIA News: Battle Continues Over Law Firm's VW Emissions Report

DOJ, Prof Spar Over Secret Jones Day VW Emissions Docs

By Linda Chiem, Law360, June 27, 2023

The U.S. Department of Justice, Volkswagen and a Loyola Marymount University professor sparred in California federal court this week over whether a confidential Jones Day report on the German automaker's internal investigation into the 2015 emissions-cheating scandal should be made public.

The DOJ, Volkswagen AG and Lawrence P. Kalbers filed separate briefs Monday in response to questions from a court-appointed special master concerning whether Jones Day's investigative findings are protected from public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. The findings were shared with the government as part of grand jury proceedings.

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The case is Kalbers v. U.S. Department of Justice, case number 2:18-cv-08439, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Read more here (accessible with free subscription).

FOIA News: DOJ gives keynote remarks at ASAP's FOIA conference

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta provided recorded remarks today at the American Society of Access Professionals’ National Training Conference in New Orleans. Ms. Gupta serves as DOJ’s Chief Freedom of Information Act Officer.

FOIA News: UFO enthusiast discusses FOIA efforts

Why does the government keep obstructing UFO transparency efforts?

By John Greenewald, Wash. Exam’r, June 22, 2023

It's been nearly 27 years since I submitted my first Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA , request on UFOs . I was 15 years old at the time. That request unearthed a four-page Defense Intelligence Agency document detailing a 1976 event in which multiple UFOs shut off the communications and instrumentation panels of two separate Iranian F-4 Phantom jets. The advanced capabilities of these UFOs sparked my interest, and through the FOIA, I quickly discovered the incident was not an isolated one. I learned that there was much more to discover within official files.

My website, The Black Vault, showcases thousands of UFO files I've received from the government. The documents, overall, hint at a mysterious phenomenon the U.S. military and government have struggled to identify adequately for decades. Indeed, they appear to have often kept the public in the dark using various tactics to block legally or at least severely prohibit accessing some of these records that date back to the 1940s.

Read more here.

FOIA News: OGIS releases annual report

On June 21, 2023, the Office of Government Information Services posted its 2023 Report for Fiscal Year 2022. Highlights of OGIS’s activities include handling 4500 requests for assistance and providing a new virtual training program on negotiations for FOIA professionals.

FOIA News: State Dep't considering AI to reduce FOIA backlog

State Department looks to AI for streamlined FOIA workloads

By Jory Heckman, Fed. News Network, June 21, 2023 9:24 am

The State Department is looking at artificial intelligence and automation tools to process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests more quickly and improve its level of service to requesters.

Eric Stein, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for Office of Global Information Services and co-chairman of the Chief FOIA Officers Council’s Technology Committee, said he’s also looking at ways to use these emerging tools to improve FOIA processing governmentwide.

“I think people are afraid of AI, and maybe they should be. Maybe they shouldn’t be, but my take is, we’d like to get people comfortable with the concepts of AI and machine learning,” Stein said.

Read more here.

FOIA News: House GOP proposes to safeguard military service records; subjects would be notified of FOIA requests

House GOP moves to ban public access to service members' military records

The proposal comes after the Pentagon erroneously released the personal information of several Republican politicians who were current or former members of the armed forces.

By Courtney Kube, NBC News, June 19, 2023

House Republicans are attempting to end the decades-old practice of the Defense Department’s releasing summaries of the service records of members of the U.S. military to the public. 

The House Appropriations Committee bill would prohibit any funds from being used to release personal information about current and former service members, which news organizations and some employers use to verify people’s military service. 

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Under the new proposal, members of the public, new organizations and some employers would have to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the military service branch to obtain the information, and the individual must be notified before the information can be released. But the FOIA process is notoriously backlogged and can take months or even years to fulfill a request. 

The only exception would be if the request comes from a federal government entity or state and local law enforcement, which the military can fulfill. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee seeks input on so-called model determination letter

FOIA Advisory Committee Seeks Input on Draft Model Determination Letter

OGIS, FOIA Ombudsman, June 14, 2023,

As presented and discussed at the June 8, 2023, FOIA Advisory Committee Meeting, the Modernization Subcommittee seeks public feedback on a model determination letter from federal agencies, FOIA requesters, and the public, before finalizing into a formal recommendation.

As the Subcommittee notes in its background document, the FOIA statute “says almost nothing about communicating the substance of the agency’s decision.” The model letter is designed to be a template for agencies to use when responding to requesters, and covers such areas as the search for responsive records, the agency’s determination and referrals, among other administrative matters. 

Read more here.