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Glawson v. EOUSA, No. 18-2673, 2020 WL 2735615 (D.D.C. May 26, 2020) (Jackson, J.)

Date

Glawson v. EOUSA, No. 18-2673, 2020 WL 2735615 (D.D.C. May 26, 2020) (Jackson, J.)

Re:  Request for grand jury records concerning plaintiff

Disposition:  Granting defendant's motion for summary judgment; denying plaintiff's motion for summary judgment

  • Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search:  The court holds that "EOUSA has provided a declaration that describes first-hand the steps that were taken to locate the records at issue . . . and it is clear from the description provided that the declarant not only 'identified and searched all locations [within the relevant database] likely to contain responsive records' but went even further afield, seeking to follow up with the Grand Jury coordinator and search the office's grand jury records generally, in order to . . . locate the documents [plaintiff] requested . . . ."  "Given this undisputed description of the search that was conducted in response to [plaintiff's] document request, this Court is fully satisfied that the agency's search was reasonably calculated to locate the responsive records for FOIA purposes."  Responding to plaintiff's arguments, the court finds that "[i]t is well established that the results of a search for records pursuant to the FOIA or the Privacy Act are not dispositive of the reasonableness of the agency's efforts."  "And the fact that [plaintiff] can conceive of places outside of the agency's purview where the records might be found . . . is of no moment."  "An agency component like EOUSA is responsible for disclosing only those records the agency possesses and controls at the time of a FOIA or Privacy Act request."
     
  • Litigation Considerations, Vaughn Index/Declaration:  Responding to plaintiff's complaint that defendant has "'not identified or applied any FOIA/PA exemption,'" the court holds that "[a] Vaughn index is a judicially approved tool for an agency to justify its withholdings under the FOIA, and there are no withholdings when the agency provides a no-records response to a FOIA request."
Court Decision Topic(s)
District Court opinions
Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search
Litigation Considerations, Vaughn Index/Declarations
Updated June 17, 2020