April 2018 FOIA Litigation with Five-Year Monthly Trends
During the month of April 2018 federal district courts saw a total of 100 new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits filed under 5 U.S.C. 552. To place this number in perspective, 100 new filings compares with a monthly average of 71 filings during the last 12 months. This month’s total brought overall FOIA filings on an annual basis for these last 12 months to 857.
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:
* Jun 1, 2018: U.S. RIGHT TO KNOW et al v. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY and 17 other new FOIA lawsuits.
* May 24, 2018: NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. v.U.S. Department Of Justice et al and 10 other new FOIA lawsuits.
* May 17, 2018: WITTES v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE and 22 other new FOIA lawsuits.
* May 10, 2018: Democracy Forward Foundation v. U.S. General Services Administration and 30 other new FOIA lawsuits.
* May 3, 2018: National Security Archive v. Central Intelligence Agency and 20 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.
