Court Decisions
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. FEC, No. 12-5004, 2013 WL 1296289 (D.C. Cir. Apr. 2, 2013) (Kavanaugh, J.)
- Procedural: The D.C. Circuit states "[t]he exhaustion issue in this case boils down to what kind of agency response qualifies as a 'determination.'" ...
Pickering-George v. U.S. Dist. Court, No. 12-3793, 2013 WL 1303792 (3rd Cir. Apr. 2, 2013) (per curiam)
- Proper Party Defendant: The Third Circuit finds that the district court properly dismissed plaintiff's claim for litigation costs under the FOIA. The FOIA does not apply to United States Courts and plaintiff "did not substantially prevail in his 2005 civil action and cannot claim relief on that basis."
Juarez v. Prison's CEO, No. C-13-0386 EMC (pr), 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48045 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 2, 2013) (Chen, J.)
- Proper Party Defendant: The court finds that plaintiff cannot bring a claim under the FOIA alleging, "that a deputy clerk in this Court failed to comply" with a judge's order. "FOIA generally is limited to agencies of the executive branch of the federal government, and does not include federal courts." Therefore, "[t]he allegation that the deputy clerk...
Ludlam v. U.S. Peace Corps, No. 11-1570, 2013 WL 1289865 (D.D.C. Mar. 29, 2013) (Sullivan, J.)
- Waiver/Public Domain: The court holds that "plaintiff's waiver argument fails because he has not shown that the withheld responses match any information already in the public domain. He argues only that the questions contained in the 2009 and...
Elec. Privacy Info. Ctr. v. FBI, 12-667 2013 WL 1245752 (D.D.C. Mar. 28, 2013) (Kollar-Kotelly, J.)
- Stay: The court denies the FBI's request for an Open America stay. It finds that "the number of FOIA and Privacy Act requests received by the FBI increased during FY 2012 as compared to the prior year, but overall the number of requests the FBI...
Charles v. Office of the Armed Forces Med. Examiner, No. 09-1999, 2013 WL 1224890 (D.D.C. Mar. 27, 2013) (Roberts, J.)
Lazaridis v. U.S. Dep't of State, No. 10-1280 (RMC), 2013 WL 1226607 (D.D.C. Mar. 27, 2013) (Collyer, J.)
- Adequacy of Search: The court concludes that State is entitled to summary judgment with regard to the adequacy of its search for responsive records. The court finds that plaintiff's "speculative argument...
Hanson v. Tamez, No. 4:13-CV-047-A, 2013 WL 1288163 (N.D. Tex. Mar. 26, 2013) (McBryde, J.)
- Exhaustion/Procedural: The court dismisses plaintiff's FOIA request, noting that "[t]he filing of a complaint in federal court is not the proper mechanism for making an initial...
Soghoian v. OMB, No. 11-2203, 2013 WL 1201488 (D.D.C. Mar. 26, 2013) (Lamberth, J.)
- Exemption 4 & Public domain: The court holds that OMB properly invoked Exemption 4 to withhold drafts of a memorandum of understanding...
Biles v. HHS, No. 11-1997, 2013 WL 1154207 (D.D.C. Mar. 21, 2013) (Lamberth, C.J.)
Re: Specific data from 2009 provided to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) by all Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAO) reflecting MAO's actual costs expected to provide offered Medicare benefits
Disposition: Denying defendants' motion for summary judgment; granting plaintiff's motion for summary judgment; declining to address plaintiff's motion for attorney's fees and costs
- E...