Judge Richard Seeborg of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled that regulations issued in 2010 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection are retroactive to FOIA/Privacy Act requests made prior to their issuance. The issue came about in a lawsuit filed in Hasbrouk v. CBP. A detailed accounting of the request, along with the order, can be found on Mr. Hasbrouk's blog, Papers, Please!
The Court also found that the personal identifiers used by CBP to retrieve information on travelers may be withheld pursuant to FOIA Exemption 7(E).
Finally, the Court found CBP's search inadequate on certain items and ordered CBP to conduct additional searches for material responsive to the request.
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