FOIA News: Wired dropping paywall for FOIA stories

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow.

Katie Drummond, Freedom of the Press Found., Mar. 18, 2025

The news business isn’t just any business — it serves a vital role in our democracy, recognized by the First Amendment. But media outlets can’t serve that role if they’re bankrupt. And as a result, news readers often find themselves blocked by paywalls from reading important stories about government business.

That experience is particularly frustrating for readers who are unable to access the groundbreaking investigative reports outlets like Wired magazine have been publishing, particularly over the first couple months of the Trump administration. Fortunately, Wired has a solution — it’s going to stop paywalling articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

This approach makes a lot of sense from the standpoint of civil duty. They’re called public records for a reason, after all. And access to public documents is more important than ever at this moment, with government websites and records disappearing, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency doing its best to operate outside the public’s view, and the National Archives in disarray.

But some may argue that, from a business standpoint, not charging for stories primarily relying on public records automatically means fewer subscriptions and therefore less revenue. We disagree. Sure, the FOIA process is time- and labor-intensive. Reporters face stonewalling, baseless denials, lengthy appeals processes, and countless other obstacles and delays. Investigative reports based on public records are among the most expensive stories to produce and share with the public.

Read more here.

FOIA News: The CREW-DOGE FOIA fight continues

Today, Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (“CREW”) filed its opposition to the government’s motion for reconsideration in a case where Judge Christopher Cooper has concluded that President Trump’s DOGE is likely an “agency,” as defined by the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”).

CREW’s argues, principally, that DOGE fails to identify any “intervening change of controlling law, new evidence, or need to correct a manifest injustice,” such as would justify reconsideration. Instead, “[i]t simply wants a do-over” to provide evidence and argument that should have already been raised during briefing CREW’s request for preliminary injunctive relief—that is, expedited processing of its FOIA request. On CREW’s view, the district court’s consideration of DOGE’s supposed agency status was entirely correct, procedurally speaking, and any attempt to relitigate the “agency” question now has been waived. As CREW’s attorneys put it: “DOGE’s problem is not that it was not aware of or failed to appreciate that FOIA’s applicability to it was in dispute; its problem is that it recognized and raised the issue but chose not to make an essential argument.”

As for the proffered declaration of DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, CREW insists this new factual evidence is similarly improper ground for reconsideration, and hardly establishes “extraordinary circumstances” that would warrant disturbing the district court’s PI order: “Nothing in Ms. Gleason’s declaration is new in any sense,” notwithstanding questions about her availability to have offered such averments during the previous round of briefing, and instead the declaration “raises more questions than it answers.”

CREW also argues that the government’s attempt to seek a stay pending potential appeal is unwarranted and “falls woefully short of its burden.”

Finally, CREW asks the court, if it decides to grant reconsideration, to order expedited discovery into DOGE’s structure, authority, and operations, so as to avoid a new judgment based solely on “Defendants’ one-sided evidentiary presentation.” Limited discovery into the functions of EOP components is not unprecedented and has indeed been ordered in the past in other cases involving entities such as the Office of Administration, the Office of Homeland Security, and the National Security Council. It seems that CREW anticipates any successful motion for reconsideration to be followed by summary judgment briefing on DOGE’s disputed “agency” status.

The government, for its part, could file a reply brief—although it is possible the court will act on the motion without waiting for such a filing. If the motion for reconsideration is ultimately denied, it is possible—and perhaps even very likely—that DOGE will notice an appeal to the D.C. Circuit. As always, FOIA Advisor will continue to monitor and report on this important and interesting case.

FOIA News: ICYMI: DOJ-OIP 2024 Litigation and Compliance Report

2024 FOIA Litigation and Compliance Report Now Available

DOJ-OIP, FOIA Post, Mar. 18, 2025

Earlier this month, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) posted the Department’s 2024 FOIA Litigation and Compliance Report.  In accordance with the FOIA, each year the Department of Justice submits to Congress and the President a report detailing OIP’s efforts to encourage agency compliance with the FOIA.  The report highlights the many ways that OIP works to provide guidance, trainings, and counseling to agencies to assist them in their FOIA administration and to promote agency accountability.  The report also contains lists of all FOIA litigation cases received and decided in the prior calendar year. 

This year's report highlights new guidance issued by OIP such as guidance for further improvement in light of OIP’s assessment of agency Chief FOIA Officer Reports and guidance on FOIA reporting requirements.  As detailed in the 2024 Report, OIP fielded over 750 direct one-on-one counseling calls via OIP’s FOIA Counselor Line.  OIP also hosted and facilitated numerous training programs and briefings on the FOIA and offered training to over 8,000 registered attendees.  The Report also summarizes the recently updated chapters to the DOJ Guide to the FOIA, searchable summaries of court decisions, and information about FOIA news and events published in the FOIA Post blog.

The 2024 Report also details OIP’s work in continuing to maintain and enhance the National FOIA Portal on FOIA.gov that allows the public to submit a request to any Federal agency from a single site.  In 2024, OIP enhanced the FOIA Search Tool on FOIA.gov that utilizes machine learning to help members of the public quickly and accurately locate commonly requested records.  OIP continues to refine the tool to best serve the public.  

Along with the narrative portion of the report, every year OIP compiles charts listing the FOIA litigation cases received and decided during the reporting year.  As in previous years, OIP again provides these charts in both PDF and open (CSV) formats.

OIP invites both agencies and the public to review its 2024 Litigation and Compliance Report to learn more about all our efforts to encourage agency compliance with the FOIA.  OIP looks forward to building on these efforts as we continue to work with agencies and the public to improve the overall administration of the FOIA in the years ahead.

Read the original post here.

FOIA News: Trump critics predict doomsday for transparency

Sunshine Week comes amid darkening clouds for open gov advocates

It's Sunshine Week, but transparency advocates say open government, already in peril, may be reaching a new low under the Trump administration.

By Justin Doubleday, WFED, Mar. 17, 2025

The Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) typically marks Sunshine Week, an annual occasion to celebrate open and transparent government, with a public awards ceremony to honor the contributions of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) professionals across government.

This year, however, DoJ OIP appears to have abandoned previous plans to host the annual FOIA awards on March 17. DoJ did not respond to a request for comment.

For open government experts, the cancellation of what was a routine ceremony is just the latest blow in a new assault on government transparency. They point to how the Trump administration has fired FOIA staff, removed public websites and data, terminated 18 inspectors general, and resisted efforts to disclose DOGE records, among other actions.

“I think this is the darkest Sunshine Week within living memory,” Daniel Schuman, chief executive of the American Governance Institute, told me in an interview. “Nothing less than a collapse of open and accountable government is happening all around us.”

Read more here.

[ALB commentary: We’re glad to see our earlier reporting on the growing request backlog and about Sunshine Week echoed here.

Mr. Schuman apparently has a short memory. A mere five years ago in mid-March, the entire country was shut down by COVID-19 and scores of agency FOIA offices were crippled for months—in some cases for all of 2020 and beyond (e.g., the National Archives and Records Administration). Mr. Schuman’s dramatic comment reminds me of a recent observation by Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman about the state of the Democratic Party:  “A sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance . . . We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to − and it may not be the winning message.”

Further, Professor Cuillier is off base in claiming that the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy “favors secrecy.” No, OIP is dedicated to faithfully applying the statute, which inconveniently for some open government advocates includes exemptions. The FOIA is not, as many like to say, a “records disclosure statute”; it is a partial disclosure statute. The exemptions are as much a part of FOIA’s purpose as is the general purpose of access.

FOIA News: Top House Democrats are seeking DOGE details under the Freedom of Information Act

Top House Democrats are seeking DOGE details under the Freedom of Information Act

By Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press, Mar. 18, 2025

Top Democrats on the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees have filed a lengthy Freedom of Information Act request questioning whether the Trump administration’s DOGE Service is operating “outside the bounds of federal law,” The Associated Press has learned.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia are seeking detailed information about the authority of the Department of Government Efficiency Service, including billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk and some 40 other people, to carry out firings of federal workers and dismantling of federal agencies.

Read more.

FOIA Advisor's Allan Blutstein Interviewed by Racket News

Do Your Own Research: How to File Your Own Freedom of Information Requests

By Greg Collard, Racket News, Mar. 18, 2024

Public records are a key part of Racket’s library project—not just for the stories we cover, but as a resource to help you access the records that matter to you. I figured talking to a guy with “FOIA” as his vanity license plate would be a good place to start.

Allan Blutstein helps run a site called FOIA Advisor. It’s a labor of love among Blutstein and two others that he jokes is funded by his credit card. All three are involved in conservative politics for their day jobs, but FOIA Advisor is for anyone. It has a roundup of FOIA news, FOIA-related court cases, links to searchable FOIA regulations for federal agencies, samples of FOIA appeal letters by conservative and liberal groups, FOIA letter-generator sites, and electronic reading rooms where you can access records and see what other people are requesting.

Read the whole interview.

FOIA Commentary: Major news outlets misreport recent steps in FOIA case about Prince Harry’s immigration records

Recently, several major news sources have published articles claiming that a federal judge "ordered the Department of Homeland Security to “release Prince Harry’s immigration records.” NBC News, for example, reported that the release of these records could reveal the Duke of Sussex’s “prior drug use before coming to America.” USA Today filed a similar story.

These reports are incorrect, as FOIA Advisor’s Ryan Mulvey explained on X, formerly known as Twitter. The confusion appears to stem from a misreading of the district court docket and Judge Carl Nichols’s ruling on the Heritage Foundation’s motion for reconsideration.

In September 2024, Judge Nicholas ruled against Heritage, as FOIA Advisor thrice reported (here and here and here). Heritage subsequently moved for reconsideration, arguing that the court had failed to review the government’s in camera filings (as well as a transcript of an ex parte hearing), which were sealed from Heritage and the public docket. Looking to D.C. Circuit caselaw, Heritage maintained that Judge Nicholas should have reviewed these filings to ensure everything that could be made public was accessible.

Judge Nichols granted the motion for reconsideration in part roughly one month ago. He directed the government to provide its position on “whether and to what extent (1) the declarations it provided in camera, (2) the transcript of the in camera hearing, [(3)] the Court’s August 15, 2024 Order, and/or (4) additional parts of the Memorandum Opinion can be redacted and made available to Heritage.”

This past weekend, upon consideration of the government’s recommended disclosures, the court directed DHS to lodge those redacted versions on the public docket. The documents should be available tomorrow, March 18th. Notably, the court accepted DHS’s contention that no further portion of the memorandum opinion granting summary judgment to the agency could be released.

Although there might be some very minimal amount of information substantively related to Prince Harry contained in the documents to be released by DHS, it will almost certainly not be anything that could be protected by Exemptions 6 and 7(C). More importantly, these records will not constitute Prince Harry’s immigration file or “visa records”—they are simply the supporting declarations and court transcripts created in the course of litigating Heritage’s case.

FOIA News: DOJ upgrades online FOIA tool

Upgraded FOIA.gov Search Tool Delivers Improved Results

By DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Mar. 17, 2025

The FOIA.gov Search Tool was recently upgraded to leverage advancements in machine learning. This upgrade is expected to significantly improve the results and resources it delivers to the public.  Initially launched in October 2023, the Search Tool helps users locate already-public information or the correct agency to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Sunshine Week activities

Here is a calendar of events being held during Sunshine Week and beyond. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy has not announced a public event, which it traditionally holds on the first Monday.

FOIA News: CFO Council issues white paper on FOIA job series

By DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Mar. 14, 2025

A white paper issued by the Chief FOIA Officer (CFO) Council Committee on Cross-Agency Collaboration and Innovation (COCACI) has been published on FOIA.gov.  The white paper, written by COCACI’s Working Group for Standardizing the Government Information Specialist (GIS) Position (Working Group), presents its findings and recommendations on ways to standardize the GIS job series.

The Working Group surveyed FOIA practitioners and agency executives about four key areas: work demographics, FOIA experience, workplace environment, and career plan.  Taking the data from this research, the Working Group held conversations with FOIA leadership at several federal agencies, with the goal of identifying existing approaches in improving the professionalization and standardization of qualifications for FOIA professionals and determining the transferability of these approaches to the GIS job series. Additionally, the Working Group aimed to understand what made a FOIA program successful, what challenges were faced by FOIA programs, and how a cross-agency approach could improve a FOIA, and therefore GIS, professional’s career.

Read more here.