Court Decisions Overview
Each year the federal courts issue hundreds of decisions in FOIA cases, addressing all aspects of the law. These decisions shape the way the law is interpreted and applied by the many attorneys and access professionals across the government who handle FOIA requests, administrative appeals, and litigation. To aid those professionals, and to facilitate greater understanding of the FOIA overall, OIP posts summaries of FOIA decisions to this website.
Although we have designed these summaries to reflect the key aspects of each decision, by their nature these are summaries only, and such things as internal citations and quotations have been omitted. Our goal is to provide readers with an overview of the cases as they are decided during the year, but for a complete understanding of any given case readers are, of course, encouraged to read it in its entirety.
Using the Court Decisions Page
This website includes decisions decided since January 2013. Summaries of decisions decided between May 2009 and December 2012 are available in the Court Decisions Archive. All decisions are presented chronologically, based on the date of issuance, with the most recent decision appearing first. Each decision is tagged topically with the relevant exemption or procedural consideration addressed.
You can view all decisions tagged with a particular topic or court by using the “Topic” drop down menu. For example, to see all cases where Exemption 5 is addressed, select “Exemption 5.”
You can search through each decision summary for keywords or phrases using the “Keyword Search” feature. For example, to see all cases with a particular term, such as “e-mail” or “affirming,” you can type in the term or phrase to retrieve all court decision summaries where it appears. You can also use this feature to locate decisions from a particular court by searching for the court acronym, such as “D.C. Cir” for all decisions from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
McLaughlin v. Pasco Cnty. Sheriff's Office, No. 11-15257, 2013 WL 692724 (11th Cir. Feb. 26, 2013) (per curiam)
- Jurisdiction/Amendment of Complaint: The court holds that the district court erred in denying appellant "the opportunity to amend his complaint at...
Evans v. Legislative Affairs Div., ATF, No. 6:12-cv-00641-JMC, 2013 WL 708941 (D.S.C. Feb. 26, 2013) (Childs, J.)
- Exemption 7C: The court rejects plaintiff's argument that disclosure of the information requested concerning the agent involved in his arrest [i.e. verification of the agent's employment by ATF at the time of plaintiff's trial] will serve the public interest...
Pub. Emps. For Envtl. Responsibility v. EPA, No. 12-748, 2013 WL 677672 (D.D.C. Feb. 26, 2013) (Collyer, J.)
- Jurisdiction:As an initial matter, the court decides that the only claim properly before it is Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility's [PEER's] FOIA claim. The employee...
Duhon v. Napolitano, No. 1:11cv334-HSO-RHW, 2013 WL 704894 (S.D. Miss. Feb. 26, 2013) (Ozerden, J.)
- Litigation Considerations: Plaintiff's FOIA claim should be dismissed because she acknowledged that "she is 'no[t] seeking damages as to the Freedom of Information Act [claim].'"
Dillard v. DOJ, No. 2:12-cv-3875-JHH, 2013 WL 754781 (N.D. Ala. Feb. 25, 2013) (Hancock, J.)
- Exemption 7E: The court finds that "on the face of plaintiff's complaint and its exhibits, there is no violation of FOIA." The court notes that the letter attached to the complaint shows that plaintiff's request to the FBI was denied under...
Hainey v. Dep't of the Interior, No. 11-cv-1725, 2013 WL 659090 (D.D.C. Feb. 25, 20130 (Wilkins, J.)
- Personal knowledge requirement of declarant: The court rejects plaintiff's arguments that Interior provided a defective declaration because of "personal knowledge, competency, and hearsay objections." The court finds that Interior's declarant...
Velasquez v. DEA, No. 11-cv-0820-GPC-NLS, 2013 WL 686727 (S.D. Cal. Feb. 25, 2013) (Curiel, J.)
- Proper Party Defendant: The court dismisses plaintiff's claims against DEA's chief of the Freedom of Information Operations Unit...
Carter, Fullerton & Hayes v. FTC, No. 1:12-cv-448, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24850 (E.D. Va. Feb. 21, 2013) (O'Grady, J.)
- Adequacy of the Search: The court finds that "[t]he agency's numerous missteps throughout the drawn out FOIA process raise significant doubts in the eyes of the Court that the FTC's search was reasonably calculated to uncover all responsive...
Menasha Corp. v. DOJ, No. 12-1720, 2013 WL 615326 (7th Cir. Feb. 20, 2013) (Posner, Cir. J.)
- Exemption 5/"Inter-Agency or Intra-Agency" Threshold Requirement: The...
Darnbrough v. U.S. Dep't of State, No. 11-1862 (EGS), 2013 WL 619773 (D.D.C. Feb. 20, 2013) (Sullivan, J.)
- Exemption 3: Defendant withheld one document under Section 222(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1202(f), "which requires the withholding of information contained in the records of the Department of State pertaining to the...