December 2019 FOIA Litigation with Five-Year Monthly Trends
During the month of December 2019 federal district courts saw a total of 52 new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits filed under 5 U.S.C. 552. To place this number in perspective, 52 new filings compares with a monthly average of 73 filings during the last 12 months. This month’s total brought overall FOIA filings on an annual basis for these last 12 months to 880.
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:
* January 10, 2020: The New York Times Company v. Department of Defense and 8 other new FOIA lawsuits, plus case descriptions.
* January 7, 2020: FOIA Activity: 43 new FOIA court documents, plus case descriptions.
* December 30, 2019: WITTES et al v. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION and 16 other new FOIA lawsuits, plus case descriptions.
* December 26, 2019: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER v. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION and 15 other new FOIA lawsuits, plus case descriptions.
* December 13, 2019: CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE and 12 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.
