Judicial Watch v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- holding that DOJ properly relied on Exemption 5’s attorney work-product privilege to withhold handwritten notes taken by two Assistant U.S. Attorneys during meetings regarding the potential criminal activity of Paul Manafort, as well an email exchanged by the same attorneys on the same subject.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.
OIP Announces Upcoming FOIA Trainings Dates
By DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Mar. 21, 2024
Today, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) announces new dates for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) training for April through July. 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.
* *. *
The courses and dates scheduled for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2024 are:
Introduction to the Freedom of Information Act
April 3, 2024
Processing a Request from Start to Finish
April 10, 2024
Procedural Requirements, and Fee and Fee Waivers Training
May 7, 2024
Litigation Training
May 21, 2024
Administrative Appeals, FOIA Compliance, and Customer Service Training
May 23, 2024
Exemption 1 and Exemption 7 Training
June 4, 2024
Exemption 4 and Exemption 5 Training
June 12, 2024
Privacy Considerations Training
July 9, 2024
Continuing FOIA Education Training
July 11, 2024
Read more here.
The FOIA Advisory Committee will meet virtually three more times to conclude its 2022-2024 term:
April 4, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. eastern time (ET);
May 9, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET; and
June 13, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET.
See more details in the notice scheduled to be officially published in the Federal Register on March 21, 2024.
Def. of Freedom Inst. for Policy Studies v. U.S. Dep’t of Education (M.D. Fla.) -- dismissing case on grounds of improper venue after finding that plaintiff did not reside in the Middle District of Florida, but rather was incorporated in Virginia and had its principal place of business in Washington, D.C.; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that venue was proper because plaintiff had “substantial contact” with the district and was registered to do business in Florida.
Def. of Freedom Inst. for Policy Studies v. U.S. Dep’t of Education (M.D. Fla.) -- dismissing case on grounds of improper venue after finding that plaintiff did not reside in the Middle District of Florida, but rather was incorporated in Virginia and had its principal place of business in Washington, D.C.; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that venue was proper because plaintiff had “substantial contact” with the district and was registered to do business in Florida.
Castillo v. U.S. Customs & Border Prot. (N.D. Cal.) -- denying plaintiff’s request for an award of attorney’s fees and costs because even if he were eligible, which the court doubted, plaintiff did not meet the entitlement prong because his interest in obtaining agency records “relevant to a tort claim he is considering filing does not implicate any significant public interests . . . .”
Project on Gov't Oversight, Inc. v. U.S. Office of Special Counsel (D.D.C.) -- determining that OSC properly invoked Exemption 7(C) to withhold the names and identifying information of three Trump administration officials who were investigated for Hatch Act violations, but not the subject of any further law enforcement action.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.
On April 2, 2024, Marquette University will host a discussion entitled “The Fight for FOIA: A Conversation About the State of Government Transparency.” The panelists are Professor Margaret Kwoka, USA Today reporter Nick Penzenstadler, and New York TImes reporter Mark Walker. See more details here.
NY Times v. DOJ (2nd Cir.) (unpublished) -- affirming district court’s decision that: (1) DOJ properly relied on Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege to withhold factual material that was "inextricably intertwined" with independent monitor’s subjective analysis; and (2) agency’s declarations described with "reasonably specific detail" how disclosure would result in harm to its deliberative processes, namely, “its ability to ensure candor between the agency and an independent monitor, so that DOJ can enter and effectively enforce plea agreements with companies like VW.”
Ctr. for Inquiry v. HHS (D.D.C.) -- deciding that: (1) FDA did not perform adequate search for communications between certain employees and the Homeopathic Convention of the United States (HPCU); and (2) FDA properly found that entire copies of draft HPUS monographs were “commercial” under Exemption 4 because they are “the very product from which HPCU derives most of its income,” but the agency failed to sufficiently describe remaining withheld material to permit evaluation of its “commercial” nature and it failed to establish that any records were confidential.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.
On March 18, 2024, the Department of Justice published a request in the Federal Register seeking comments on the proposed Freedom of Information Act business standards that have been created in support of Federal shared services. This is the first set of FOIA standards being developed and input will be used in formulation of business standards for federal agency FOIA case management systems.
Electronic comments must be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal, www.regulations.gov, and written comments must be postmarked, on or before May 17, 2024.
Inst. for Energy Research v. FERC (D.D.C.) -- concluding that: (1) agency conducted adequate search for records, noting that agency reasonably defined a “record” as a single text message (as opposed to “threads”) given plaintiff’s request for specific text messages containing certain terms; (2) FERC properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 5’s deliberative process privilege, but failed to show foreseeable harm for all but one withholding; and (3) FERC properly relied on Exemption 6 to withhold name of a prospective agency employee and all cellphone numbers (and that the foreseeable harm test was met), but it improperly withheld the names of two employees.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.
We FOIA’d every federal agency for their ‘Glomar’ responses. Here’s what we learned.
By Shawn Musgrave and Adam A. Marshall, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Mar. 15, 2024
In the summer of 2022, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press started an ambitious project to remedy the informational deficit surrounding Glomar, using (of course) FOIA requests. Specifically, the Reporters Committee wrote FOIA requests asking for response letters from agencies to requesters that included a number of phrases associated with the Glomar response and sent between fiscal years 2017 and 2021. The requests also gave agencies the option to simply report the number of Glomar responses issued each fiscal year, along with the exemption they were tied to. The Reporters Committee submitted the request to every federal department, agency, and subcomponent thereof across the government, totalling hundreds of submissions.
…
As of Jan. 12, nearly 300 federal agencies or components thereof responded to the Reporters Committee’s FOIA requests by providing data about their use of Glomar denials over the five fiscal years from 2017 through 2021. Combined, these agencies issued a total of more than 5,000 Glomar responses during this period.
Just over a third of agencies that responded identified at least one Glomar denial during this period. The remaining agencies replied they had no responsive documents and/or had not issued a Glomar denial during this period.
Read more here.
Federal positions closing in the next 10 days
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, GS 9, Columbia, SC, closes 3/18/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Air Force, Peterson AFB, CO, GS 12, closes 3/18/24 (non-public).
Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, GS 14, Overland, MO, closes 3/19/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, GS 12, Durham, NC, closes 3/20/24 (non-public).
Sup. General Attorney, Dep’t of Justice/Crim., GS 15, Washington, D.C., closes 3/20/24.
Sup. Program Manager (FOIA), Dep’t of Transportation/FMCSA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 3/20/24.
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Army, GS 11, Fort Novosel, AL, closes 3/21/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Nat’l Sci. Found., GS 9-12, Alexandria, VA, closes 3/22/24 (non-public).