Court opinion issued Jan. 8, 2024

Kayll v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- ruling that U.S. Customs & Border Protection did not possess or control records in a State Department database relating to visa applications, even though CBP inputted information into that database about plaintiff; in reaching its decision, the court noted its concern that a contrary ruling would allow requester to circumvent the confidentiality provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1202(f).

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

FOIA News: HUD Refuses To Release Secretary Marcia Fudge's Email Address

HUD Refuses To Release Secretary Marcia Fudge's Email Address in Response to Reason FOIA Request

By C.J. Ciaramella, Reason, Jan. 9, 2024

Want to know Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge's government email address? Too bad, it's a secret.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Reason, HUD released a list of email addresses for all political appointees—with two exceptions. The agency redacted HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge and Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman's addresses, citing an exemption from releasing any records that would "constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

Read more here.

FOIA News: Agencies Not Keeping Up with FOIA Requests, Report Shows

Agencies Not Keeping Up with FOIA Requests, Report Shows

By Staff, FEDweek, Jan. 3, 2024

A backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests pending at federal agencies “continues to persist, indicating that agencies are not keeping pace with the number of requests received” despite increasing use of exemptions that allow agencies to simply deny requests, the Congressional Research Service has said.

The backlog grew from about 131,000 to about 207,000 over fiscal 2018-2022, it said, despite 2014 recommendations from a special advisory committee of the National Archives and Records Administration to address backlog issues such as including FOIA performance standards in employee appraisals, centralizing FOIA request processing, and adding support staff.

Read more here.

FOIA News: “AI is in everything these days”

FOIA, AI and the State Department

State Department pilots AI FOIA decision-making

By Max Eichelberger, Maximum Disclosure, Jan 2, 2024

I try to keep the substack on a few distinct topics: FOIA litigation, historically significant disclosures, and even a few practice pointers. AI is not one the subjects, but AI is in everything these days. Recently, the subject of AI came up at the Chief FOIA Officers Council meeting.

Read more here.

FOIA News: CRS updates FOIA fact sheet

On December 22, 2023, the Congressional Research Service updated a three-page report entitled “The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): An Introduction.”