Court Decisions

Re: First party request for records Disposition: Granting defendants' motions for summary judgment in part and denying in part

• Procedural:  The court grants Treasury's motion for summary judgment.  Plaintiff did not "produce any evidence that he submitted a FOIA or Privacy Act request to Treasury, let alone a copy of the request itself to the court."  "[T]here is no genuine dispute that no...

Re: Request for records concerning the FBI’s "use of community-level racial and ethnic demographic data" Disposition: Affirming district court's judgment in favor of the FBI

• Exemption 7A:  The Sixth Circuit holds that the FBI properly invoked Exemption 7(A) to withhold maps, intelligence notes, program assessments and electronic communications pertaining to "the FBI's use of race and ethnic...

Re: Request for records concerning decision to deny plaintiff federal crime victim status Disposition: Granting defendants' motion for summary judgment

• Proper Party Defendants & Jurisdiction:  The court dismisses the claims brought against the individual federal employee defendants named in the suit.  "[I]n FOIA cases, individual federal employees are not proper parties; only agencies in the ex...

Re: In context of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim brought by plaintiff Disposition: Granting defendants' motion to dismiss

• Proper Party Defendants:  The court notes that plaintiff has not shown good cause for why he has failed to obtain service on various defendants.  Plaintiff stated that he filed  FOIA "request to obtain their proper names and addresses."  However, the court notes that FOIA "does not...

Re: First party request for records Disposition: Granting defendants' motion for summary judgment

• Adequacy of Search:  The court holds that defendants conducted a reasonable and adequate search for records.   The court finds that the "searches described in the Declarations were reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents."  The FBI located "only one file maintained by the Oklahoma...

Re: Defendants' request for de novo review of defendants' objection to certain recommendations issued by magistrate judge in response to plaintiffs' motion to alter or amend judgment of the district court with respect to award of attorney fees Disposition: Denying plaintiffs' motion to alter or amend judgment

• Attorney Fees:  The court declines to find that there was clear legal or factual error...

Re: Request for records concerning guides published by the FTC concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising and revisions to guide to include social media and bloggers; request for records concerning FTC's history of granting fee waivers and request for records concerning FTC's evaluation of plaintiff's fee waiver requests Disposition: Granting defendant's motion for summary...

Re: Request for records concerning the requester Disposition: Granting defendant's request for summary judgment

• Searching for Responsive Records:  The court holds that defendant "has met its burden in this case" of "adequately describe[ing] the scope and methods of its searches and demonstrate[ing] that the places most likely to contain responsive materials were searched."  The court rejects...

Re: Request for records concerning investigation of plaintiff Disposition: Granting defendant's motion for summary judgment

• Searching for Responsive Records:  The court holds that, "[b]ecause Defendant has satisfied its burden to show that a reasonable and adequate search was performed, and Plaintiff has failed to put forth any evidence that would rebut the good-faith presumption to which...

Re: Request for certain records concerning a letter sent to defendant on behalf of Schmidt for Congress Committee Disposition: Granting defendant's motion for summary judgment

• Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies:  The court, "dismiss[es] without prejudice [plaintiff's] FOIA claim to the extent he argues that [defendant] wrongfully applied exemptions to redact and withhold documents so that...