On April 11, 2024, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration published an audit that was performed to determine whether the Internal Revenue Service properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 7 or section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code between October 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023. TIGTA found that the IRS properly invoked Exemption 7 in 98 of 99 requests sampled. TIGTA found no errors in 10 requests reviewed involving section 6103.
See the entire report here.
Federal positions closing in the next 10 days
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Energy/WAPA, GS 12-13, various locations, closes 4/15/24.
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Energy/WAPA, GS 12-13, various locations, closes 4/15/24 (non-public).
Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/15/24 or first 100 applications.
Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/15/24 or first 100 applications (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Def./WHS, GS 9-13, Alexandria, VA, closes 4/16/24 (non-public).
Archivist, Nat’l Archives & Records Admin., GS 12-13, College Park, MD, closes 4/17/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Air Force, GS 11, El Segundo, CA, closes 4/18/24 (non-public).
Attorney Advisor, Dep’t of Justice/OIP, GS 12-15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/18/24.
Gov’t Info. Specialist, U.S. Int’l Trade Comm’n, GS 12-13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24 (non-public).
Sup. Gov. Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 14, remote, closes 4/22/24 or first 250 applications.
Sup. Gov. Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 14, remote, closes 4/22/24 or first 250 applications (non-public)
Attorney Adviser Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 12-13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.
Attorney Advisor Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 14-15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.
Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, U.S. Agency for Int’l. Dev, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/24/24 (non-public).
Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Justice/ATF, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/24/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 9-12, Washington, D.C., closes 4/25/24.
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 9-12, Washington, D.C., closes 4/25/24 (non-public).
Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Homeland Sec./FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/25/24 (non-public).
Federal positions closing on or after 4/26/24
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Army/Nat’l Guard, GS 9, Colchester, VT, closes 4/26/24.
Malone v. USPTO (E.D. Va.) -- ruling that: (1) plaintiff could not in litigation expand scope of his original request, which sought certain information about patent cases in which expanded panels were used or in which panels were advised by agency personnel to change their decisions; (2) plaintiff’s request would impermissibly require the agency to conduct research and create new records; and (3) agency was required to process one document concerning expanded panels that was partially responsive to plaintiff’s request.
Col. Wild Pub. Lands v. U.S. Forest Serv. (D.D.C.) -- dismissing case as moot, except with respect to matters relating to attorney’s fees and costs, because agency complied with court’s earlier decision to release certain records to plaintiff; refusing to consider plaintiff’s belated argument that agency has a “systemic policy of delaying the release of records”; and rejecting plaintiff’s various protests about how agency released records, remarking that “[b]y continuing to litigate, it seems [plaintiff] is having a hard time accepting ‘yes’ for an answer.”
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.
The Peace Corps published a final rule in the Federal Register on April 11, 2024, which reflect amendments to the agency’s FOIA regulations. The agency considered public comments, adopting several and rejecting others. The amendments are effective May 13, 2024.
As we noted in our most recent monthly roundup, the D.C. Circuit will hear argument in the FOIA case in Connell v. CIA on April 9, 2024. The ACLU, which is representing the appellant, has issued a press release about the case. A live audio stream is available here.
Federal positions closing in the next 10 days
Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Labor/MSHA, GS 13, Arlington, VA, closes 4/8/24.
Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Labor/MSHA, GS 13, Arlington, VA, closes 4/8/24 (non-public).
Sup. Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Def./DCSA, GS 14, Boyers, PA, closes 4/8/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Def./Army, GS 12, Fort Liberty, NC, closes 4/10/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of the Treasury/IRS, GS 14, closes 4/10/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Air Force, GS 12, Offut AFB, NE, closes 4/10/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Def./Army, GS 12, Fort Meade, MD, closes 4/11/24.
Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VBA, GS 13, location negotiable, closes 4/11/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 9-11, Washington, D.C., closes 4/11/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 9-11, Washington, D.C., closes 4/11/24.
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, GS 12, Asheville, NC, closes 4/12/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VBA, GS 13, Overland, MO, closes 4/12/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, GS 12, Shreveport, LA, closes 4/12/24 (non-public).
Sup. Atty-Advisor, Dep’t of Justice/NSD, GS 15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/12/24.
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Justice/DEA, GS 7-9, Arlington, VA, closes 4/14/24 (non-public).
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Energy/WAPA, GS 12-13, various locations, closes 4/15/24.
Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Energy/WAPA, GS 12-13, various locations, closes 4/15/24 (non-public).
Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/15/24 or first 100 applications.
Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/15/24 or first 100 applications (non-public)
Attorney Advisor, Dep’t of Justice/OIP, GS 12-15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/18/24.
Federal positions closing on or after April 19, 2024
Attorney Adviser Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 12-13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.
Attorney Advisor Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 14-15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.
Abissi. v. USCIS (D. Md.) -- granting government’s motion to transfer case involving asylum records to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia because only two of seven plaintiffs reside in Maryland and the responsive records are maintained in Missouri; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that venue could be established in Maryland based on the Maryland location of the agency’s Asylum Division headquarters.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.
Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. DOJ (D.D.C.) -- on remand from the D.C. Circuit, holding that: (1) the names of federal contractors who supplied the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) with pentobarbital qualified as commercial information under Exemption 4 because disclosure would reveal that “the contractors have sold a product and/or service to the government, thereby ‘actually reveal[ing] basic commercial operations” of the contractors.’”; (2) BOP established that the disputed contract terms were confidential under Exemption 4 by “showing how the contract terms at issue could be cross-referenced with public information to identify the contractors”; (3).BOP established that foreseeable harm would result from disclosure of the contractors’ names and contract terms by explaining that identified companies are “‘commonly subject to harassment, threats, and negative publicity leading to commercial decline’”; and (4) certain records needed to be reviewed in camera review to resolve whether DOJ had publicly shared withheld information.
Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.
CNN sues for access to tape of Biden’s interview with investigators in classified docs probe
By Katelyn Polantz & Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN, Apr. 4, 2024
CNN has sued for access to recordings of federal investigators’ interview with President Joe Biden in the now-closed probe over his handling of classified documents.
The interview has become one of the most notable and politically controversial parts of special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation, which concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Biden with criminal mishandling of records after his vice presidency. In a final report, Hur called Biden, 81, “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The Justice Department released transcripts of Biden’s interview after Hur’s report was made public in February, but the department also has recordings.
Read more here.
Below is our roundup of FOIA court decisions and FOIA news from March 2024, as well as a peek ahead to April.
Court decisions:
We posted 27 decisions in March, the most active month of the year thus far. Of note, the D.C. Circuit’s decision in Leopold v. DOJ (Mar. 1, 2024) reminded agencies that they must sequentially analyze exemptions and foreseeable harm, which in this Exemption 8 case the agency failed to do. Although the Circuit stated in passing that the foreseeable harm requirement applied to “all exemptions, except Exemption 3,” a more recent district court opinion correctly pointed out that foreseeable harm would “always” be present when the government properly invokes Exemption 1. James Madison Project v. Office of the Dir. of Nat'l Intelligence (D.D.C. Mar. 26, 2024).
In the interval between the above two cases, the court in Inst. for Energy Research v. FERC (D.D.C. Mar. 13) found that FERC had reasonably defined a “record” as a single text message (as opposed to “threads”) given plaintiff’s request for specific text messages containing certain terms. In reaching its decision, the court relied on DOJ/OIP’s 1995 guidance on determining the scope of a FOIA request.
Top news:
On March 4, 2024, the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy (DOJ/OIP) announced that federal agencies received more than 1.1 million FOIA requests in fiscal year 2023, surpassing the government’s previous year’s total by nearly 30 percent. As FOIA Advisor reported the day before, the government’s backlog of requests increased slightly from 206,720 to 208,282.
The government released two major reports during ‘Sunshine Week,” which was observed from March 10, 2024, to March 16, 2024. First, on March 12, 2024, DOJ/OIP issued its annual FOIA Litigation and Compliance Report, which indicated among other things that 834 FOIA lawsuits had been filed in calendar year 2023. On the next day, March 13, 2024, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released an 80-page report entitled Freedom of Information Act: Additional Guidance and Reliable Data Can Help Address Agency Backlogs. In sum, GAO recommended that DOJ/OIP develop new guidance to ensure FOIA backlog reduction plans include clear goals, milestones, and timelines.
April lookahead:
April 3: DOJ training, Introduction to the Freedom of Information Act.
April 4: Meeting of the federal FOIA Advisory Commitee.
April 9: D.C. Circuit oral argument in Connell, III v. CIA, 23-5118. The lower court’s decision is here.
April 10: DOJ training, Processing a Request from Start to Finish.
April 17: Meeting of the Chief FOIA Officers Council.