Court opinions issued Mar. 9, 2022

S. Poverty Law Ctr. v. IRS (D.D.C.) -- ruling that IRS properly invoked Exemption 3 to withhold records prepared, furnished, or collected in connection with its criminal investigation of Tennessee slaughterhouse, because such records constituted return information under 26 U.S.C. § 6103(a).

Long v. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enf’t (N.D.N.Y.) -- concluding that ICE performed adequate database search concerning “Form I-247 Requests” relating to detainers and notices of release, and that agency was not mandated to create ‘new, complex queries and new records resulting from those newly created queries.’

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.

Court opinion issued Mar. 8, 2022

Block v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- finding that EOUSA performed adequate search for records concerning plaintiff and government properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 3, 5, 7(C), 7(D), and 7(F).

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.

FOIA News: ICYMI, tech tool might help FOIA requesters

A new tool allows journalists to quickly sort through FOIA data dumps

By Paroma Soni, Columbia Journalism Rev., Mar. 2, 2022

IN THE 2020 FISCAL YEAR ALONE, federal agencies received nearly 800,000 requests under freedom of information laws. The process is notoriously frustrating, marked by delays, denials, and appeals before documents are turned over (if they ever are). Even success can be exasperating—documents arrive in the form of large dumps, without any meaningful organization. All that work is time- and labor-intensive; for smaller newsrooms with fewer financial resources and less manpower, it may feel prohibitive. A recent foia workshop held by the Chicago Headline Club included a session called “More data, more problems,” aimed at finding new approaches to reporting with massive data dumps.  

“I file a lot of foia requests, and I often get back hundreds and hundreds of emails, documents, and a ton of text files,” Hilke Schellmann, a journalism professor at New York University, says. “I don’t necessarily know what or where the smoking gun will be, but I know I don’t need to read hundreds of emails about someone’s lunch schedule to find it.”

Read more here.

FOIA News: Notes from a prolific FOIA requester

Ken Klippenstein, a reporter at the Intercept and self-described “prolific FOIA requester,” discussed the FOIA during a student journalism conference on March 4, 2022. His 45-minute talk is here.

FOIA News: FOIA Advisory Committee meeting

The FOIA Advisory Committee is meeting virtually on Thursday, March 10, 2022, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Members of the public may attend if registered by March 8, 2022. Additional information is available here.

FOIA News: FOIA makes appearance in NYT crossword

The March 6th crossword puzzle of the New York Times used “FOIA” as the four-letter answer to the hint “Records request inits.” See 98 across below.

FOIA News: Sunshine Week events

Sunshine Week will be observed this year from March 13, 2022, through March 18, 2022. Three virtual events have been schedule by federal agencies.

On March 14, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., the Department of Justice will host its twelfth annual Sunshine Week event, which will be broadcast via livestream.

On March 14, 2022, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., the National Archives and Records Administration will livestream a conversation moderated by philanthropist David M. Rubenstein between the Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero and the Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden.

On March 16, 2022, the Department of Commerce’s Office of Privacy and Open Government is hosting a virtual Annual Sunshine Week Event & Expo. This event features a full day of sessions and a virtual vendor hall.

FOIA News: Chief FOIA Officer Reports for FY 2022 to be posted shortly

The Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy will soon post Chief FOIA Officer Reports for fiscal year 2022 from all federal agencies, according to a government source who contacted FOIA Advisor. A few reports can now be found on agency websites:

• Social Security Administration

• Commodity Futures Trading Commission

• Dep’t of Health & Human Serv.

• Dep’t of Transportation

• Inter-American Foundation

DOJ/OIP will post Chief FOIA Officer Reports here.

Court opinions issued Mar. 1, 2022

Braun v. USPS (D.D.C.) -- finding that agency performed adequate search for records pertaining to plaintiff and properly invoked Exemption 7(C) to redact identities of law enforcement personnel.

Bagwell v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- in case involving records of investigations into possible child sexual abuse on Penn State’s campus, concluding that: (1) Executive Office for United States Attorneys could not categorically withhold set of records consisting of 11,648 pages of emails pursuant to Exemptions 3 (FRCP 6(e)), 6, 7(C), and 7(D); and (2) EOUSA properly relied on Exemptions 3 (FRCP 6(e)) and Exemption 5 (attorney work-product) to withhold second set of records; and (3) foreseeable harm provision enacted in 2016 did not retroactively apply to request made in 2014.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.

Court opinion issued Feb. 28, 2022

Naumes v. Dep’t of the Army (D.D.C.) -- ruling that: (1) Army performed reasonable search for records concerning online survey, but ordering agency to produce webpages available as embedded links in documents already released to plaintiff; (2) with respect to agency’s use of Exemption 4 to withhold survey questions from copyrighted sources, (a) agency failed to explain whether it copied or modified questions from the copyrighted sources; (b) agency must release withheld questions from any sources which are available publicly at no charge; (c) agency must confer with copyright holders for remaining non-public source materials about whether they treat those materials as confidential; (3) agency sufficiently showed foreseeable harm from disclosing copyrighted information.

Summaries of all published opinions issued since April 2015 are available here.