Sample administrative FOIA appeals

Appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s use of Exemption 6 to withhold portions of consumer complaints against financial institutions.

Appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union of the Department of Defense’s reliance upon Exemptions 1, 6, and 7(C) to withhold information about detainees in Afghanistan.

Appeal by Cause of Action challenging the Department of Agriculture’s use of Exemption 5 (attorney-client privilege) to withhold White House communications with the agency.
Appeal by Cause of Action concerning the adequacy of the search performed by the Securities and Exchange Commission for records of its FOIA consultations with the White House.

Appeal by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys’ use of Exemptions 6 and 7(C) in response to request for records of investigation concerning a former Congressman.
Appeal by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington from the FBI’s use of Exemption 7(A) to withhold all records concerning deceased Congressman Jon Murtha.
Appeal by the Electronic Privacy Information Center from the Department of Commerce’s reliance on Exemption 3 to withhold records concerning the export of surveillance technology.
Appeal by National Security Archive of the National Security Agency’s invocation of Exemption 1 and 3 concerning death of Secretary-General of United Nations in 1961.

Appeal by Public Citizen in response to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s reliance on Exemptions 3, 4, 5 (deliberative process privilege), 7(A), and 7(E).

Appeal by Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse disputing the Department of the Treasury’s use of Exemption 6, the adequacy of its search, and format of the document production.

Sample Complaints

Below are a selection of FOIA Complaints categorized by the cause of action for the lawsuit. Additional Complaints may located via the FOIA Project, which maintains a searchable archive of FOIA litigation documents and statistics.

Failure to respond to request

Bonner v. DOD (S.D.N.Y 2021) (less than 2-week delay)

Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. EPA (D.D.C. 2017) (one-month delay)

Cause of Action v. DOJ (D.D.C. 2017) (two-month delay)

Elec. Privacy Info. Ctr. v. DHS (D.D.C. 2015) (three-month delay)

Natural Res. Def. Council v. NOAA (S.D.N.Y. 2015) (ten-month delay)

America First Legal v. FDA (D.D.C. 2023) (more than one-year delay)

Nat’l Security Archive v. CIA (D.D.C. 2011) (five-year delay)

Expedited processing

Gov’t Accountability & Oversight v. EPA (D.D.C. 2024)

James Madison Proj. v. ODNI (D.D.C. 2023)

Adequacy of Search