Case Detail
| Case Title | HASSAN QATANANI et al v. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY et al | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| District | District of New Jersey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Newark | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Case Number | 2:2012cv05379 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date Filed | 2012-08-24 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date Closed | 2015-03-31 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge | Judge Katharine S. Hayden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plaintiff | MOHAMMAD MAHDI AHMAD HASSAN QATANANI | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plaintiff | CLAUDIA SLOVINSKY | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defendant | DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND ITS COMPONENTS U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES and U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defendant | DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND ITS COMPONENT FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Documents | Docket Complaint Complaint attachment 1 Opinion/Order [30] Opinion/Order [31] FOIA Project Annotation: A federal court in New Jersey has ruled that the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI conducted adequate searches for records concerning Mohammad Qatanani, a Jordanian national who had immigrated to the United States in 1996 where he serves as Imam at the Islamic Center of Passaic County, and properly withheld records under a variety of exemptions. In 1993, Qatanani had been detained and allegedly tortured by the Israeli Defense Forces, who released him after he had signed a "finishing paper" that was apparently used as the basis for his conviction in Israel of supporting Hamas. Qatanani applied for permanent residency in the U.S. in 1999, but his application was not heard until 2005. During an interview with FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Qatanani told them of his detention by IDF, but did not characterize it as an arrest. The interviewing agents later concluded that Qatanani had lied about his arrest in Israel and his application for permanent residency was denied. While Qatanani's removal proceeding was pending, his attorney made a series of FOIA requests to Homeland Security and the FBI. DHS ultimately found thousands of responsive pages and the FBI located another 279 pages. Qatanani filed suit challenging both the searches conducted by the agencies and their exemption claims. Qatanani's primary challenge to ICE's search was that it did not involve senior officials. The court noted that "if the Court adopted Qatanani's premise, the determinative factor for the reasonableness of a FOIA search would be its results. . .ICE need not scour every office to locate responsive records absent a finely tailored request identifying specific documents or places to search, nor must it expand its search based on speculations derived from vague references without 'a positive indication of overlooked materials.'" DHS had withheld a number of records under Exemption 5 (privileges). Qatanani argued that some records had lost their privilege because they constituted final decisions. Addressing one such document, the court pointed out that "the document remains deliberative and predecisional because it recommends and analyzes litigation strategy and its recommendations had yet to be acted on. There is no indication that this [document] or any other withholdings that Qatanani challenges constitute formal interpretations of established ICE policy or later became policy. . ." Qatanani claimed the agency was improperly withholding factual case summaries under the attorney work-product privilege. The court explained that "considering the broad scope a court should afford the work product doctrine, the Court finds that ICE has demonstrated its right to invoke it under Exemption 5." The FBI had withheld records under Exemption 7(A) (interference with ongoing investigation or proceedings). Qatanani questioned the agency's category-by-category descriptions of withheld documents. The court, however, indicated that "the FBI provides the same level of detail under the other four subcategories and logically connects their disclosure to an articulable harm." The court rejected Qatanani's claim that disclosure of personally-identifying information for agency officials involved in his case would be in the public interest, noting instead that "he originally submitted his FOIA request in order to get information he thought would be relevant in his removal proceeding, a purely personal interest." As to whether the individuals' information was protected under Exemption 6 (invasion of privacy) or Exemption 7(C) (invasion of privacy concerning law enforcement records), the court indicated that "even if their identities are already publicly known or if they possessed a diminished privacy interest, these persons still retain a privacy interest entitled to protection under Exemption 7(C)."
Issues: Adequacy - Search, Exemption 7(C) - Invasion of privacy concerning law enforcement records | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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