US Right to Know v. Nat'l Nuclear Sec. Admin. (D.N.M.) -- determining that agency performed reasonable search for records pertaining to the origin of COVID-19 and/or SARS-CoV-2.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.
The National Archives and Records Administration has released its annual FOIA report for fiscal year 2023. Here is a summary of the key data:
Requests received: 62,505, an increase of 317 percent from 14,975 in FY 2022.
Requests processed: 66,064, an increase of 341 percent from 14,977 in FY 2022.
Backlog of requests: 6,410, a 35.7 percent decline from 9,969 in FY 2022.
Appeals received: 121, an increase of 49 percent from 81 in FY 2022.
Appeals processed: 64, an increase of 190 percent from 22 in FY 2022.
Backlog of appeals: 224, an increase of 44.5 percent from 155 in FY 2022.
Total costs: $1,688,400, with administrative costs of $1,632,400, and litigation costs of $56k. Total costs in FY 2023 were 9.6 percent higher than in FY 2022 ($1,540,000).
Processing time: The median processing time for all perfected, “complex” requests was 897 days.
Nat’l Assoc. of Minority Veterans v. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs (D.D.C.) -- following in camera review, ruling that: (1) agency did not forfeit right to invoke exemptions on renewed summary judgment, because the only issue argued on initial briefing was adequacy of the agency’s search (which located no records); (2) “most—but not all—of the information redacted by the VA could create “a reasonably expected risk” of circumvention of the law if released,” thus warranting agency’s Exemption 7(E) claims; (3) agency’s survey questions and responses fell within the deliberative process privilege, but agency’s general contentions that disclosure would ”stifle” communications and cause “public confusion” failed to meet the foreseeable harm test.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.
The Department of Defense has posted its annual FOIA report for fiscal year 2023. Below is a summary of the key data.
Requests received: 60,109, up 11.3 percent from 54,004 in FY2022.
Requests processed: 55,731, a 6.7 percent increase from 52,222 in FY 2022.
Backlog of requests: 19,882, up 7 percent from 18,567 in FY 2022.
Appeals received: 1,108, a decrease of 11.5 percent from 1,252 in FY 2022.
Appeals processed: 1,247, a decrease of less than 1 percent from 1,257 in FY 2022.
Backlog of appeals: 736, a 14.6 percent decline from 862 in FY 2022.
Total costs: $90,06 million, with $85.61 million in administrative costs and $4.45 million in litigation costs. The total costs in FY 2023 were 8.6 percent lower than in FY 2022 ($98.6 million).
Processing time: Notable laggards include the National Security Agency and Cyber Command, whose median processing times for “complex” requests were 966 days and 652.5 days, respectively—well above the agency overall time of 48.50 median days.
FOIA Advisor has learned that Daniel Metcalfe, a Freedom of Information Act luminary for the past five decades, died last month at the age of 72. Dan co-founded the Department of Justice’s Office of Information and Privacy with Richard Huff in November 1981. After Mr. Huff retired in 2005, Dan led OIP as Director until his own retirement in January 2007. He subsequently established and ran the Collaboration on Government Secrecy, an educational project devoted to transparency, at the American University Washington College of Law. In 2023, Dan published a book, Inside Justice: Secrecy at Work, which chronicles his FOIA career and addresses numerous transparency issues.
Judicial Watch Settles State Department Lawsuit that Uncovered Hillary Clinton’s Unsecure, Nongovernment Emails
Judicial Watch, Feb. 27, 2024
Judicial Watch announced today it settled its 2014 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, which sought the emails of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding the Benghazi attack. This suit led directly to the disclosure of Clinton’s use of a nongovernment email server to conduct government business (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:14-cv-01242). The settlement commits the State Department to a payment to Judicial Watch of $97,000.
Read more here.
DOL Appeals EEO-1 FOIA Ruling to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
By Lauren B. Hicks and Emily M. Halliday, Ogletree Deakins, Feb. 27, 202
On February 15, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking review of a district court ruling that ordered the DOL to release federal contractors’ 2016–2020 Type 2 Consolidated EEO-1 Reports to the Center for Investigative Reporting and one of its reporters.
Read more here.
The Department of Justice has released its FOIA annual report for fiscal year 2023, and the numbers are impressive. Below is a summary of the key data.
Requests received: 110,934, an 18.8 percent increase from 93,370 requests received in FY2022.
Requests processed: 144.065, a 73.8 percent increase from 82,868 requests processed in FY2022. The Executive Office for Immigration Review alone processed over 104k requests and nearly 34k more than it received (70,475).
Backlogged requests: 43,927, down 32.4 percent from 64,982 at the end of FY2022.
Appeals received: 2044, nearly the same as in FY2022 (2048)
Appeals processed: 2126, the same number as FY2022 (2126)
Backlogged appeals: 240, a 25 percent decrease from FY2022 (321).
Total costs: $111,990,580, with $93.32 million in administrative costs and $18.66 million in litigation costs. Total costs in FY2023 were 12.3 percent higher than in FY2022 ($99.72 million).
Federal positions closing in the next 10 days:
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Ed./Sec’y, Washington, D.C., GS-13, closes 2/27/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, EPA, Reg. 6, Dallas, TX, GS 11-12, closes 2/27/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of the Army, Fort Belvoir, VA, GS 13, closes 2/28/24 (non-public).
Att’y-Advisor, Dep’t of Justice, OIP, Washington, D.C., GS 12-14, closes 2/29/24.
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dev. Finance Corp., location negotiable, GS 13, closes 2/29/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, Salt Lake City, UT, GS 12, closes 2/29/24.
Trial Attorney, Dep’t of Justice, Crim. Div., Washington, D.C., GS 14-15, closes 3/1/24.
Supervisory Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Agric., OCIO, remote, GS 14, closes 3/4/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Air Force, Arlington, VA, GS 12, closes 3/4/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Fed. Deposit Ins. Corp., multiple locations, CG 12, closes 3/4/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Army, Fort Belvoir, VA, GS 11, closes 3/6/24 (non-public).
AMA Sys. v. FDA (D. Md.) -- concluding that: (1) with exception of one email authored by FDA, agency properly invoked Exemption 4 to withhold its file concerning company’s unsuccessful application to produce single-use surgical masks as personal protective equipment during COVID pandemic; (2) agency was not required to meet the foreseeable harm test because all information protected under Exemption 4 was barred from disclosure under the Trade Secrets Act.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.