FOIA News: CIA to amend FOIA regulations

The Central Intelligence Agency intends to revise its Freedom of Information Act regulations, according to a draft notice scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on July 1, 2022. Public comments will be accepted for 60 days.

FOIA News: Deadline extended for FOIA Advisory Committee nominations

Office of Gov’t Info. Serv., The FOIA Ombudsman, June 29, 2022

The deadline for nominating yourself or someone else to the 2022-2024 term of the FOIA Advisory Committee has been extended until Friday, July 15, 2022. We are looking for a wide range of FOIA experts from both inside and outside the government who have a passion for FOIA and a commitment to improving the FOIA process.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued June 27, 2022

N.Y. Times v. DOJ (S.D.N.Y) -- following in camera review of a report concerning Volkswagen AG’s compliance with plea agreement, ordering limited disclosure of information that DOJ had withheld under Exemption 4 and Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege.

Buzzfeed, Inc. v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- in case involving illegal alien data in the department’s Enforcement Integrated Database, ordering CBP to address whether database contains unique identifiers other than A-numbers and concluding that CBP properly relied on Exemption 7(E) to withhold some, but not all, disputed database information.

Pfeiffer v. Dep’t of Energy (D.D.C.) -- ruling that plaintiff, a PhD anthropology candidate, had sufficiently demonstrated that his request fell within fee category of an educational institution, rejecting agency’s argument that plaintiff’s potential profit transformed request to commercial use.

Kowall v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- denying plaintiff’s Rule 59(e) motion to amend two aspects of court’s summary judgment ruling, namely that ATF performed adequate search for records concerning client’s post-conviction proceedings and that FBI properly withheld plea agreement of client’s co-defendant.

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

FOIA News: Don't hold your breath for Navy records on UFOs

U.S. Navy Reading Room notice re: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena

Court opinion issued June 23, 2022

Selgjekaj v. EOUSA (D.D.C.) -- on renewed summary judgment, ruling that EOUSA reasonably described its search for grand jury records associated with plaintiff’s criminal prosecution.

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

FOIA News: SSA looking to replace FOIAonline; Gov't Attic uncovers details of platform's demise

On June 22, 2022, the Social Security Administration issued a request for information (RFI) for replacement software for its FOIAonline case management, which is being eliminated. The “sunsetting” of FOIAonline was reported in 2021, albeit never widely announced. A FOIA request from Government Attic to EPA about the demise of FOIAonline yielded 627 pages of records.

Court opinion issued June 22, 2022

Smith v. EOUSA (S.D.N.Y.) -- denying plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration of summary motion in government’s favor, but agreeing that pro se plaintiff was eligible and entitled to award of filing and mailing costs due, in part, to agency’s dilatory search for records.

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

Court opinion issued June 21, 2022

BuzzFeed Inc. v. DOJ (S.D.N.Y.) -- ruling that DOJ properly relied on Exemption 7(C) to withhold identity of former DOJ employee who had sexually harassed a subordinate, according to public OIG report.

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

FOIA News: Spy versus spy

How contractors use FOIA to spy on one another

Tom Temin, Fed. News Network, June 21, 2022

The Freedom of Information Act might be best known as a way for journalists and public interest groups to get information about the operations of government. But it can also be a tool for companies to get confidential information about their competitors. Safeguarding that information has gotten more complicated in the last few years. Because the state of the law around the FOIA exemption that applies to things like trade secrets, it’s all in flux. Nathan Castellano is a special counsel in the government contracts group at Jenner and Block. He wrote a recent briefing paper about these complications and talked about them with Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Read more here.

FOIA News: OGIS annual public meeting next week

The Office of Government Information Services will hold its annual public meeting on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. Registration information and meeting materials are available here.