Welcome to our first “Roundup.” At the beginning of each month, we’ll highlight the FOIA activity we’ve observed in the previous month, just in case you missed it. Additionally, we’ll point out what’s ahead in the 4 to 5 weeks,
Court decisions: We posted 16 decisions in January. Of note, the court in Children’s Health Def. v. FDA (D.D.C.) reminded us that a plaintiff-friendly judge in the Northern District of Texas has paralyzed the FDA’s FOIA operations with what might be the most burdensome production schedule in the history of FOIA litigation (180k pages per month). The CDC also has been ensnared by the same district court, which recently held that it would not be unreasonably burdensome for the agency to process 7.8 million “free text” messages over the next 12 months. See Freedom Coal. of Doctors for Choice v. CDC (N.D. Tex.).
OGIS: On January 25th, in a blog post discussing the history of the Glomar response, OGIS inexplicably expressed its support for a FOIA Advisory Committee recommendation to eliminate that term from agency lexicons, notwithstanding opposition from DOJ and others.
DOJ: On January 23rd, OIP solicited nominations for Sunshine Week FOIA awards for agency personnel.
Other news: Requesters filed 59 lawsuits across the country in January, according data posted by the FOIA Project. The most frequent filer was the Center for Immigrations Studies, with five cases.
February lookahead:
On February 6th, OIP will host an Advanced Freedom of Information Act training for federal employees and contractors. Despite being virtual, it is listed as “sold out.”
On February 14th, the D.C. Circuit will hear oral argument in Cabezas v. FBI. We will post a reminder the day before.
On February 16th, the D.C. Circuit will hear oral argument in Assassination Archives & Research Ctr. v. DOJ. We will post a reminder the day before.
By the end of the month, we expect most agencies to have posted their annual FOIA reports for FY 2023, which are due no later than March 1st.