Court opinion issued July 21, 2022

Lewis v. U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury (D. Md.) -- deciding that: (1) plaintiff was not entitled to money damages from Department of Veterans Affairs for disclosing records only after plaintiff filed her lawsuit; and (2) agency properly relied on Exemptions 6 and 7(C) to withhold certain records concerning plaintiff’s complaint about third party, but that it improperly withheld internal tracking numbers, information on the administrative processing and status of the complaint and investigation, and standard form instructions.”

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

Court opinion issued July 20, 2022

Judicial Watch v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- ruling that FBI properly invoked Exemption 7(E) in refusing to confirm or deny existence of agency communications with financial institutions about the violent attack at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, rejecting plaintiff’s argument that FBI had official acknowledged existence of those records.

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

Court opinion issued July 19, 2022

Montgomery v. IRS (D.C. Cir.) -- affirming district court’s decision that: (1) IRS properly relied on Exemption 7(D) in refusing to confirm or deny existence or records concerning involvement of whistleblower(s) in agency’s investigation of plaintiffs; and (2) IRS performed adequate search for agency communications with third parties about plaintiff’s taxes.

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

FOIA News: Microsoft Says IRS Can't Skip FOIA Suit Over 15-Year Audit

Microsoft Says IRS Can't Skip FOIA Suit Over 15-Year Audit

A Washington federal court should reject the IRS' bid to escape without trial from Microsoft Corp.'s public records suit seeking documents on its 15-year audit, the company argued, saying the agency withheld tens of thousands of files with little justification.

Read more here (subscription).

FOIA News: Summary of OIP's summary of FY 2021 FOIA data

The FOIA backlog continued to grow last year

By Justin Doubleday, Fed. News Network, July 22, 2022

The federal Freedom of Information Act request backlog continued to rise in fiscal 2021, but FOIA offices were able to make a dent in the backlog of administrative appeals last year.

The Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) runs down the numbers in its analysis of agency chief FOIA officer fiscal 2021 reports.

Agencies received 838,164 FOIA requests in fiscal 2021, a 6% increase above the total received in fiscal 2020. And the FOIA backlog increased by just over 8% to a total of 153,227 requests by the end of fiscal 2021.

A request is considered backlogged when it has been pending at an agency longer than the statutory time to respond, which is typically 20 working days, but can be up to 30 working days in unusual circumstances.

DOJ’s 49,959 delayed requests made up 33% of the backlog alone. The Department of Homeland Security, which typically receives the most FOIA requests of any agency and was able to make a dent in its backlog last year, accounted for 16% of the backlog at the end of fiscal 2021, while the Defense Department represented 11% of the backlog.

Read more here.

FOIA News: OIP Publishes Summary of Fiscal Year 2021 Annual FOIA Reports

SUMMARY OF FISCAL YEAR 2021 ANNUAL FOIA REPORTS PUBLISHED

By DOJ/OIP. FOIA Post, July 21, 2022

The Office of Information Policy (OIP) has released its Summary of Annual FOIA Reports for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021.  This summary provides a synopsis of FOIA activities across the government during the previous fiscal year, looks at key statistics in FOIA administration, and identifies trends in FOIA processing.  Each summary serves as a resource for both agencies and the public to gain an understanding of overall FOIA administration.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued July 15, 2022

Shapiro v. FBI (D.C. Cir. ) -- affirming, in most respects, district court’s decision that FBI performed adequate search for voluminous records related to the animal rights movement, but remanding case to fill in gap concerning certain electronic surveillance records.

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

Court opinion issued July 14, 2022

Adams v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- finding that: (1) agency performed reasonable search for records concerning himself and the agency; (2) agency properly withheld certain records pursuant to Exemptions 1 and 3; and (3) agency properly refused to confirm or deny the existence of certain records pursuant to Exemptions 1 and 3, but it failed to demonstrate that all of its Glomar responses were appropriate.

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

FOIA News: Exemption 4 webinar

The law firm of PilieroMazza will be hosting an Exemption 4 webinar on September 15, 2022. See details here.

FOIA News: Meet the OIP Director

An updated profile of the Director of the Office of Information Policy was posted on July 13, 2022.