We have added 54 documents from 9 FOIA cases filed between January 3, 2021 and January 9, 2021. Note that there can be delays between the date a case is filed and when it shows up on PACER. If there are filings from this period that have yet to be posted on PACER, this FOIA Project list may not be complete.
Click on a case title below to view details for that case, including links to the associated docket and complaint documents.
- CATO INSTITUTE v. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION et al (filed Jan 7, 2021)
The Cato Institute submitted a FOIA request to the FBI for records concerning deceased Senator Frank Church. The agency acknowledged receipt of the request. The agency disclosed 469 pages from its preprocessed file. The Cato Institute asked for an estimated date of completion. The agency told the Cato Institute that its request was still being processed read more…
We have added 12 decisions of a procedural or substantive nature filed between January 3, 2021 and January 9, 2021. These are associated with 12 FOIA cases pending in federal district court. Note that because there can be delays between the date a decision is made and when it shows up on PACER, this listing includes only decisions that appeared on PACER during this period.
Click on the date to view the full text of the decision. Click on a case title below to view other details for that case, including links to the docket report and complaint.
- DC 1:2017cv00918 — MONTGOMERY et al v. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
- January 5, 2021: MEMORANDUM OPINION re [109] Order on Motions for Partial Summary Judgment. Signed by Judge James E. Boasberg on 1/5/2021. (lcjeb1)
During the month of December 2020 federal district courts saw a total of 61 new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits filed under 5 U.S.C. 552. To place this number in perspective, 61 new filings compares with a monthly average of 64 filings during the last 12 months. This month’s total brought overall FOIA filings on an annual basis for these last 12 months to 767.
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.
read more…
The news media are powerful players in the world of government transparency and public accountability. One important tool for ensuring public accountability is through invoking transparency mandates provided by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In 2020, news organizations and individual reporters filed 122 different FOIA suits[1] to compel disclosure of federal government records—more than any year on record according to federal court data back to 2001 analyzed by the FOIA Project.
In fact, the media alone have filed a total of 386 FOIA cases during the four years of the Trump Administration, from 2017 through 2020. This is greater than the total of 311 FOIA media cases filed during the sixteen years of the Bush and Obama Administrations combined. Moreover, many of these FOIA cases were the very first FOIA cases filed by members of the news media. Almost as many new FOIA litigators filed their first case in court in the past four years—178 from 2017 to 2020—than the years 2001 to 2016, when 196 FOIA litigators filed their first case. Reporters made up the majority of these. During the past four years, more than four out of five of first-time litigators were individual reporters. The ranks of FOIA litigators thus expanded considerably during the Trump Administration, with more reporters challenging agencies in court for failing to provide records they are seeking, either alone or with their news organizations.
Using the FOIA Project’s unique dataset of FOIA cases filed in federal court, this report provides unprecedented and valuable insight into the rapid growth of media lawsuits designed to make the government more transparent and accountable to the public. The complete, updated list of news media cases, along with the names of organizations and reporters who filed these suits, is available on the News Media List at FOIAProject.org. Figure 1shows the total number of FOIA cases filed by the news each year. Counts are available in Appendix Table 1 at the end of this report.
We have added 41 documents from 6 FOIA cases filed between December 27, 2020 and January 2, 2021. Note that there can be delays between the date a case is filed and when it shows up on PACER. If there are filings from this period that have yet to be posted on PACER, this FOIA Project list may not be complete.
Click on a case title below to view details for that case, including links to the associated docket and complaint documents.
- JAMES MADISON PROJECT et al v. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION (filed Dec 28, 2020)
The James Madison Project and Daily Beast Editor Noah Shachtman submitted a FOIA request to the General Services Administration for records concerning the agency’s decision to recognize Joe Biden as president-elect. The agency acknowledged receipt of the request. After hearing nothing further from the agency, JMP and Shachtman filed suit read more…
We have added 1 decision of a procedural or substantive nature filed between December 27, 2020 and January 2, 2021. These are associated with 1 FOIA case pending in federal district court. Note that because there can be delays between the date a decision is made and when it shows up on PACER, this listing includes only decisions that appeared on PACER during this period.
Click on the date to view the full text of the decision. Click on the case title below to view other details for that case, including links to the docket report and complaint.
- CO 1:2018cv00314 — Rocky Mountain Wild v. United States Bureau of Land Management et al
- December 30, 2020: ORDER Granting [44] Defendants' Renewed Motion for Summary Judgment. Entered by Judge William J. Martinez on 12/30/2020.(afran)
We have added 80 documents from 13 FOIA cases filed between December 20, 2020 and December 26, 2020. Note that there can be delays between the date a case is filed and when it shows up on PACER. If there are filings from this period that have yet to be posted on PACER, this FOIA Project list may not be complete.
Click on a case title below to view details for that case, including links to the associated docket and complaint documents.
- American Civil Liberties Union Foundation v. Department of Justice et al (filed Dec 22, 2020)
The ACLU Foundation submitted a FOIA request to the Department of Justice for records concerning the Electronic Device Analysis Unit. The ACLU Foundation also requested a fee waiver. The Office of the Attorney General acknowledged receipt of the request and told the ACLU Foundation that its request qualified for unusual circumstances read more…
We have added 2 decisions of a procedural or substantive nature filed between December 20, 2020 and December 26, 2020. These are associated with 2 FOIA cases pending in federal district court. Note that because there can be delays between the date a decision is made and when it shows up on PACER, this listing includes only decisions that appeared on PACER during this period.
Click on the date to view the full text of the decision. Click on a case title below to view other details for that case, including links to the docket report and complaint.
- OR 3:2019cv02001 — Berryhill v. Bonneville Power Administration
- December 23, 2020: OPINION AND ORDER: For the reasons stated, the Court GRANTS BPA’s Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. [15] ). DATED this 23rd day of December, 2020, by United States Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman. (pjg)
We have added 174 documents from 22 FOIA cases filed between December 13, 2020 and December 19, 2020. Note that there can be delays between the date a case is filed and when it shows up on PACER. If there are filings from this period that have yet to be posted on PACER, this FOIA Project list may not be complete.
Click on a case title below to view details for that case, including links to the associated docket and complaint documents.
- PROJECT FOR PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE ACCOUNTABILITY, INC. v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE et al (filed Dec 14, 2020)
The Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability submitted FOIA requests to the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the CIA, and the Department of State for records concerning requests for unmasking or upstreaming, including requests for former members of congressional intelligence committees read more…
We have added 12 decisions of a procedural or substantive nature filed between December 13, 2020 and December 19, 2020. These are associated with 12 FOIA cases pending in federal district court. Note that because there can be delays between the date a decision is made and when it shows up on PACER, this listing includes only decisions that appeared on PACER during this period.
Click on the date to view the full text of the decision. Click on a case title below to view other details for that case, including links to the docket report and complaint.
- CAS 3:2020cv00990 — Voice of San Diego v. Federal Communications Commission et al
- December 15, 2020: ORDER Vacating and Resetting Continued Status/Case Management Conference. By 1/14/2021 the parties shall file an updated joint status report with the Court. The status conference set for December 16, 2020 is VACATED and RESET for 1/21/2021 at 10:00 AM before Magistrate Judge Nita L. Stormes. Signed by Magistrate Judge Nita L. Stormes on 12/15/2020. (tcf)
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