Case Detail
| Case Title | SMITH v. U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| District | District of Columbia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Washington, DC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Case Number | 1:2018cv02048 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date Filed | 2018-08-31 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date Closed | Open | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge | Judge Tanya S. Chutkan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plaintiff | GRANT F. SMITH | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Case Description | Grant Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, submitted FOIA requests to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and the Clinton Presidential Library for presidential letters sent to Israel pledging not to pressure the Israeli government into signing the non-proliferation treaty on nuclear weapons. Smith asked for a fee waiver. The libraries acknowledged receipt of the requests and issued a Glomar response neither confirming nor denying the existence of records. Smith filed administrative appeals for both Glomar responses, but after hearing nothing further from the agency, Smith filed suit. Complaint issues: Failure to respond within statutory time limit, Litigation - Vaughn index, Litigation - Recovery of Costs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defendant | U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Documents | Docket Complaint Complaint attachment 1 Opinion/Order [21] FOIA Project Annotation: Judge Tanya Chutkan has ruled that Grant Smith, founder of the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy, failed to show that letters allegedly written to Israel by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush pertaining to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty have been publicly acknowledged. Smith submitted FOIA requests to the Clinton and Bush Presidential Libraries for the letters, which he insisted must exist. The National Archives and Records Administration issued a Glomar response neither confirming nor denying the existence of records. Smith claimed the alleged letters were improperly classified and that John Laster, Director of the Presidential Materials Division at NARA, was not a proper classification authority. Bush had invoked his 12-year privilege claims, including properly classified information, under the Presidential Records Act when he left office and Chutkan pointed out that in Bush's case those claims did not expire until January 2021. Because Bush's claims had not yet expired, Chutkan noted that "the document sought, a letter sent from President Bush during his presidency to a foreign state regarding foreign policy, satisfies the definition of presidential records under the PRA. Because the requested material is a presidential record and the twelve-year restriction period is still in place, the PRA precludes judicial review of the Archivist's determination restricting access to the document sought." Turning to Smith's claim that Laster was not a properly classification authority, Chutkan observed that "though the basis for Smith's assertion is unclear, the court assumes that it rests on the language in the PRA repeatedly referring to 'the Archivist.' Pursuant to this section, NARA issued a policy directive delegating authority to administer restrictions on presidential records to the Director of the Presidential Materials Division. Given the policy directive's delegation, Laster is properly authorized to impose presidential restrictions under the PRA." As to the alleged Clinton letter, Chutkan indicated that NARA's Glomar response was appropriate under Exemption 1 (national security). She pointed out that "the detail in [NARA's declaration] is enough to support a Glomar response." She added that "because [NARA's declaration] logically and plausibly supports NARA's conclusion 'that acknowledging the mere existence of the responsive records would disclose exempt information,' NARA has met its burden of showing that exemption1 protects the information sought from disclosure." Smith argued that statements made by Henry Kissinger in 1969 when he was National Security Advisor to President Richard Nixon, a 2016 statement by President Barack Obama, and a 2018 article in the New Yorker discussing how Israel's possession of nuclear-weapon technology was one of the world's worst kept secrets, as evidence that the U.S. had dealt with Israel on nuclear proliferation issues. Chutkan found none of the statements constituted official acknowledgment of Israel's possession of nuclear-weapon technology. She noted that "because neither the Kissinger memorandum nor President Obama's 2016 remarks 'necessarily match' the information that Smith requests, and The New Yorker is not an official disclosure, Smith fails to show any official acknowledgment of an Israel nuclear letter signed by President Clinton."
Issues: Determination - Glomar response | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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