June 2019 FOIA Litigation with Five-Year Monthly Trends
During the month of June 2019 federal district courts saw a total of 70 new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits filed under 5 U.S.C. 552. To place this number in perspective, 70 new filings compares with a monthly average of 68 filings during the last 12 months. This month’s total brought overall FOIA filings on an annual basis for these last 12 months to 812.
The figure below provides a more detailed view of monthly trends during the past five years. The height of each bar reflects the number of filings in that month. To see the actual filing count mouse over any bar. The superimposed line over the bars is the moving 12-month average. It is computed by adding up the 12 months ending at a given month, and then dividing that total by 12 to obtain the monthly average over this period. Mousing over any bar also shows the calculated result for this moving average for that given month.
Locating additional details on these cases: The FOIA Project compiles summaries of each of these cases written by Harry Hammitt for FOIAproject.org into a weekly blog posting. These typically are posted every Thursday. For recent postings see:
* July 11, 2019: BRYANT v. DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY and 15 other new FOIA lawsuits, plus case descriptions.
* June 20, 2019: CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING et al v. DEPARTMENT OF STATE and 20 other new FOIA lawsuits.
* June 13, 2019: CABLE NEWS NETWORK v. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION and 13 other new FOIA lawsuits, plus case descriptions.
* June 6, 2019: CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE and 9 other new FOIA lawsuits.
* May 30, 2019: CAUSE OF ACTION INSTITUTE v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR et al and 21 other new FOIA lawsuits.
Documents in each case, including the complaint that was filed and the court’s docket sheet, are available elsewhere on FOIAproject.org. They can be found by using the “Search Lawsuits” tool under the “FOIA Lawsuits” menu. Earlier reports in this “Latest Trends” series can be viewed by using the “Latest Trends” menu item under the “FOIA Lawsuits” menu.
