Judge John D. Bates of the District Court for the District of Columbia has granted the Center for Public Integrity ("CPI") status as a representative of the news media in its lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") for records maintained by HHS. Being classified as a representative of the news media is important in FOIA matters as it will lessen the charges the government can charge for processing, searching and duplicating responsive material.
In its requests before HHS, CPI had requested news media status but was administratively denied the status by HHS. However, Judge Bates found that CPI met the standards for status of news media representative. Importantly, Judge Bates found that because CPI had demonstrated that it had released a number of publications in the past and intended to use the information released in these instances as the subject of various press releases and articles, CPI didn't have to show more detailed future publication plans. This finding was in contrast to previous FOIA lawsuits where the plaintiffs (National Security Archive and Judicial Watch) were obligated to show detailed future publication plans before they could be considered representatives of the news media because those previous plaintiffs had only had one publication each at the time of their FOIA lawsuits. CPI had demonstrated to HHS a detailed past history of publication.
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