The FOIA blog

Vaughn Index Explanation

John Davis of ClearanceJobs.com has this explanation of what a Vaughn index is - its an interesting take on explaining the FOIA world to those who aren't conversant in the special language of the FOIA.

FOIA Updates: Exemption 4, ICE Sued by DC

The Hill has this on the D.C. Attorney General's FOIA lawsuit against ICE for information on immigration actions in the District in July of 2018.  Rather than follow what should be normal law enforcement protocol and provide information to the District's law enforcement agencies, D.C. had to file a FOIA request for the information.  ICE then failed to answer the request in the statutory time period which resulted in the lawsuit.  

The National Law Review has this piece on two recent FOIA cases (one of which is very familiar to me - and I disagree with the result).  However, the article does a good job of summarizing the cases and comes away with the fact that line item prices are protected under the FOIA in the D.C. Circuit.

FOIA Updates: Exemption 4, ICE Sued by DC

The Hill has this on the D.C. Attorney General's FOIA lawsuit against ICE for information on immigration actions in the District in July of 2018.  Rather than follow what should be normal law enforcement protocol and provide information to the District's law enforcement agencies, D.C. had to file a FOIA request for the information.  ICE then failed to answer the request in the statutory time period which resulted in the lawsuit.  

The National Law Review has this piece on two recent FOIA cases (one of which is very familiar to me - and I disagree with the result).  However, the article does a good job of summarizing the cases and comes away with the fact that line item prices are protected under the FOIA in the D.C. Circuit.

FOIA Suits By Non-Profits Double Under Current Administration

The FOIA Project has this very interesting report on FOIA lawsuits filed by non profits - it breaks the information down by administration and from 2001 on.  The number of lawsuits filed during the current administration has doubled since January 2017.  Interestingly, not all of the lawsuits filed under the current administration are from left leaning non-profits as Judicial Watch leads the pack in the number of complaints filed.  

It will be interesting to see if the trend continues after the mid term elections - a government with a party holding at least one part of Congress has additional avenues for information outside of FOIA requests and litigation.  

Lawsuit Filed Over DOJ Definition of a Record in FOIA

Cause of Action has filed a lawsuit over the Department of Justice's (DOJ) definition of a record in the processing of FOIA requests.  The D.C. Circuit ruled on the issue in 2016, and basically disagreed with the way the government was deciding how some material located in FOIA requests was found to be outside of the scope of the FOIA request being processed.  DOJ issued guidance in early 2017, which Cause of Action finds to not be consistent with the FOIA.  It's a pattern and practice claim, so the first hurdle will be for the plaintiff to get past a motion to dismiss and get standing for the district court to hear the issue.  The plaintiff's press release on the lawsuit can be found here.

Hodes v. Treasury (IRS Private Collection Contracts)

The U.S. District Court recently ruled (in a case I brought) against disclosure of certain information in the private collection contracts the IRS has made with four companies.  Peter Reilly has written about the case and the underlying issues in this article in Forbes.

DOJ FOIA GUIDE- 3+ Years, No Update

The Department of Justice Guide to the Freedom of Information Act, found here, is a valuable resource to both government employees processing and litigating FOIA matters and FOIA requesters.  It is the definitive substantive position of the government on FOIA issues.  However, not one of its sections has been updated since August of 2015 - some haven't been updated since 2009.  If there had been no changes in FOIA that would be fine, however there has been legislation and a number of important Court decisions on FOIA matters since then. 

While DOJ has given procedural advice on FOIA reporting consistently, it is unclear why there have been no changes in this important document.  Hopefully, DOJ will remedy this in the near future.