Poet Design & Constr., Inc. v. DOE, No. 18-00857, 2018 WL 2694453 (D.D.C. June 5, 2018) (Mehta, J.)

Poet Design & Constr., Inc. v. DOE, No. 18-00857, 2018 WL 2694453 (D.D.C. June 5, 2018) (Mehta, J.)

Re:  Request for records concerning a federally funded project awarded to plaintiff 

Disposition:  Denying motion to intervene 

• Reverse FOIA & Litigation Considerations, Standing:  "Plaintiff and [intervenor] agree that intervenors in this Circuit must have Article III standing to enter and participate in a pending action."  "Additionally, [the parties] [do] not seriously contest . . . that a lawyer who submits a FOIA request has Article III standing to challenge an agency's FOIA decision, but the lawyer's client lacks standing to do the same, unless the client is clearly identified in the FOIA request."  "[T]he question is whether [intervenor]'s counsel identified [intervenor] as his client when making the FOIA request."  The court finds that, "[t]he undisputed fact is that he did not . . . [t]herefore, [intervenor] has no standing to intervene in this matter."