FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: Artificial intelligence at the State Dep't

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

AI Update: State Department’s AI Programs, Google’s AI Push into Government

FedManager, Sept. 26, 2023

Agencies across the federal government are preparing strategies to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) technology. At the State Department, the agency is amid several different artificial intelligence projects.

One State Department pilot program uses AI to process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. AI helps cut down on work by combining similar requests, eliminating duplicate work, and finding potentially responsive records. AI is also being used to identify classified and other FOIA-exempt materials in search results, although it is not used for redactions at this moment.

Read more here.

Court opinions issued Sept. 19, 2023

Court Opinions (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Radar Online v. FBI (S.D.N.Y.) -- deciding that: (1) FBI was entitled to raise Exemption 7(A) as grounds for withholding Jeffrey Epstein-related records due to changed circumstances, but agency failed to show how disclosure of particular investigatory records would interfere with a retrial of Ghislaine Maxwell if she prevailed on appeal; (2) FBI properly relied on Exemption 3 to withhold identifying information concerning minor children, but it failed to meet its burden regarding grand jury materials and juvenile arrest and criminal history information; (3) FBI properly withheld various records pursuant to Exemptions 5, 6, and 7(C), and 7(E); and (4) FBI established that Exemption 7(D) protected information provided by local law enforcement information, but it did not meet its burden with respect to information provided by other sources.

Cable News Network v. CIA (D.D.C.) -- holding that CIA properly relied on Exemptions 1 and 3 in refusing to confirm or deny the existence of records pertaining to deceased musician James Brown.

Inst. for Energy Research v. FERC (D.D.C.) -- determining that: (1) agency performed adequate search for two Commissioners’ calendars; (2) agency’s explanations for its withholdings under Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege were “insufficiently detailed”; and (3) agency properly withheld certain records pursuant to Exemption 6, but failed to justify its categorical withholding of the names of all “lower-level staff.”

Bakaj v. DHS (D.D.C.) -- ruling that DHS properly redacted the names of four CIA officials pursuant to Exemption 3 in conjunction with the Inspector General Act, National Security Act, and the CIA Act.

Wright v. FBI (D.D.C.) -- concluding that one of plaintiff’s requests was unreasonably described, the FBI conducted adequate searches with respect to four of five disputed items, and the FBI properly issued a Glomar response under Exemptions 1 and 3.

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

Court opinion issued Sept. 16, 2023

Court Opinions (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Lawyers for Civil Rights v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs. (D. Mass) -- summarily adopting Magistrate Judge’s recommendation that USCIS properly witheld some, but not all, records pursuant to the deliberative process privilege, and that all of agency’s attorney-client privilege withholdings were proper; also remarking without context that “a generalized intention to shield government employees from unwanted attention is insufficient to support a wholesale exemption from the Freedom of Information Act's (FOIA) disclosure requirements.” 

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

FOIA News: DOJ issues assessment of 2023 CFO Reports and 2024 guidance

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Summary and Assessment of Agency 2023 Chief FOIA Officer Reports and New Guidelines for 2024 CFO Reports Issued

By DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Sept. 20, 2023

Today the Office of Information Policy (OIP) is pleased to release its summary and assessment of agencies’ 2023 Chief FOIA Officer (CFO) Reports.  OIP’s 2023 summary and assessment focuses on steps agencies have taken to improve FOIA administration in five key areas highlighted in the Attorney General’s 2022 FOIA Guidelines:

  • FOIA Leadership and Applying a Presumption of Openness;

  • Ensuring Fair and Effective FOIA Administration;

  • Proactive Disclosures;

  • Utilizing Technology to Improve Efficiency; and

  • Steps Taken to Remove Barriers to Access, Improve Timelines, and Reduce Backlogs.

This past March marked the fourteenth year that agency CFOs submitted these reports to the Department of Justice.

Read more here.

FOIA News: "FOIA Love" musical comedy still going strong after 10 years

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

Comedy-Bluegrass Show “FOIA Love” Makes Troy Debut

By Cara Denton, NYS Music, Sept. 20, 2023

FOIA Love: A Comedy and Bluegrass Show About Public Records, is making its one-night Troy debut on October 22 at the Arts Center of the Capital Region. The show is a comedy and music performance, with all humor inspired by actual public documents, such as FCC complaints about Big Bang Theory being too violent, FBI profiles of sports stars, and misguided visa rejections.

Read more here.

Additional tour dates here.

FOIA News: OIP training dates for FY 2024

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

OIP Announces New FOIA Training Dates for Fiscal Year 2024

Today, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) announces new dates for FOIA training for the first half of Fiscal Year 2024.  As part of its responsibility to encourage agency compliance with the FOIA, OIP offers numerous training opportunities throughout the year for agency FOIA professionals and individuals with FOIA responsibilities. 

These courses are designed to offer training opportunities for personnel from all stages of the FOIA workforce, from new hires to the experienced FOIA professionals or FOIA managers.  OIP will continue to offer virtual training sessions that will be taught in real-time by OIP instructors.  We will announce more training opportunities for spring and summer 2024 at a later date.  As Fiscal Year 2024 quickly approaches, we are pleased to announce these virtual training courses, which are also available on OIP’s Eventbrite page:

Read more here.

FOIA News: MuckRock Launches FOIA Log Explorer

FOIA News (2015-2023)Kevin SchmidtComment

Browse thousands of additional FOIA requests with the new FOIA Log Explorer

By Michael Morisy, MuckRock, Sept. 18, 2023

The FOIA Log Explorer expands that view by importing data on thousands of requests from dozens of agencies at the state, local and federal level, making it easier to search through and see what kinds of materials agencies are and are not releasing, as well as helping you craft more targeted requests of your own.

The Explorer does this by digitizing, normalizing and importing data from FOIA logs, lists that many agencies keep of all of the requests they receive over a given time period. These kinds of logs are invaluable tools for developing story ideas, whether by gathering ideas for items you can request or getting clues about commercial interest in specific areas of governmental operations.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Some agencies fall behind on FOIA.gov interoperability requirements

FOIA News (2015-2023)Kevin SchmidtComment

Some agencies fall behind on FOIA.gov interoperability requirements

By Rebecca Heilweil, FedScoop, Sept. 15, 2023

A number of federal agencies, including the Secret Service and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, are still working to become interoperable with FOIA.gov —  a hiccup in the slow-going effort to standardize the public records request process at the federal level and create a national FOIA system. 

Many agencies have updated their public records systems in order to ensure their systems work with FOIA.gov, a requirement established in a 2019 White House memo, according to a recent FedScoop review of 2023 Chief FOIA Officer reports and subsequent inquiries sent to agencies. But others are still running into technical and logistical issues.

Read more here.