Numerous reporters and news organizations have already taken federal agencies to court seeking government records from the Trump administration. Details on all media-filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits filed through the initial four months of the Trump administration are now available in the second edition of The Media List.
Forty-five new FOIA lawsuits filed by 60 media plaintiffs have been added since the December 1, 2017 edition was posted.
The complete Media List compiles information on each news organization and reporter since 2000 who filed a FOIA federal lawsuit. The updated list, with filings through May 19, 2017, now covers 436 media plaintiffs and provides current details about each suit.
Who Were the Reporters and Media Organizations Who Brought New Suits?
During the last six months new lawsuits were filed by a total of 10 different news organizations and 29 individual reporters. Each of these recent FOIA filers is listed in Table 1.
Multiple suits were brought by three media organizations and five reporters during this most recent period. The most frequent filer was investigative journalist Jason Leopold. Leopold filed 7 new FOIA lawsuits during the past six months. In two of these he joined with his new employer, Buzzfeed, Inc. The second most active media filer was The New York Times. It filed 6 new FOIA lawsuits. The Washington correspondent for the Times, Charlie Savage, was also a named plaintiff for four of these suits.
Other media organizations that filed more than one case during this period were: Buzzfeed, Inc. that filed 3 suits and Pro Publica, Inc. that filed 2 suits.
Filing a single case were media organizations: Center for Public Integrity, National Public Radio, the Miami Herald, the Virginian-Pilot, Gizmodo Media Group operated by Univision Communications, Makuhari Media maker of documentary films, and ThinkGlobal, publisher of trade publications on international exports.
Besides Jason Leopold, two other reporters filed at least 3 separate cases during the past six months. These were the previously mentioned Times reporter Charlie Savage with 4 new suits, and Politico senior White House reporter Josh Gerstein with 3 new filings. Leopold, Savage and Gerstein have also been plaintiffs in earlier FOIA litigation during the Obama years.
The remaining two reporters with multiple suits were new entrants to the list of FOIA media filers. These two were chief investigative reporter Ken Vogel of Politico and The Daily Beast executive editor Noah Shachtman.
| Media Organizations | Suits Filed |
|---|---|
| The New York Times Company | 6 |
| Buzzfeed, Inc. | 3 |
| Pro Publica, Inc. | 2 |
| Center for Public Integrity | 1 |
| Gizmodo Media Group, LLC | 1 |
| Makuhari Media LLC | 1 |
| Miami Herald Media Company | 1 |
| National Public Radio, Inc. | 1 |
| ThinkGlobal, Inc. | 1 |
| Virginian-Pilot Media Companies, LLC | 1 |
| Reporters | Suits Filed |
| Jason Leopold | 7 |
| Charlie Savage | 4 |
| Josh Gerstein | 3 |
| Ken Vogel | 2 |
| Noah Shachtman | 2 |
| Adam Johnson | 1 |
| Brad Heath | 1 |
| Carol Rosenberg | 1 |
| Charles Seife | 1 |
| Cora Currier | 1 |
| David Burnham | 1 |
| David Talbot | 1 |
| Dylan Tokar | 1 |
| James Lantz | 1 |
| Jeffrey Stein | 1 |
| Jens Porup | 1 |
| Jeremy Merrill | 1 |
| Joshua Eaton | 1 |
| Laura Leigh | 1 |
| Leslie E. Packer | 1 |
| Louise Mensch | 1 |
| Matt Apuzzo | 1 |
| Matt Smith | 1 |
| Peter Aldhous | 1 |
| Robert Benincasa | 1 |
| Scott W. Johnson | 1 |
| Seth Freed Wessler | 1 |
| Shane Harris | 1 |
| Thomas K. Reilly | 1 |
For details on each media-filed federal FOIA lawsuit since 2000, along with the identities of the reporters and news organizations filing these suits, see The Media List.
Please Help Us Improve This List
The FOIA Project launched The Media List initiative to document just how often the news media take federal agencies to court to enforce FOIA requirements. Starting with the case-by case records for virtually every FOIA suit now available on FOIAproject.org, the project team has examined and classified each of the over ten thousand individual names of plaintiffs in these suits to identify those that were media related.[1]
In some lawsuits, both a news organization and a reporter at that organization were named plaintiffs in the federal court action and both are included on the list. Other suits were brought individually by reporters.
The project is seeking the community’s assistance in expanding the information available through this list. Please let us know if you spot any errors or omissions. If you were the plaintiff or attorney in any of these cases, we would especially encourage you to contribute commentary about the case, or additional court documents recording details of the case. The “Case Detail” link on The Media List takes you to a page listing the material currently available about each suit, along with a link you can use to upload additional documents.
We are currently working on a similar list covering advocacy and nonprofit organizations. Please help support these new initiatives through your donation.
The TRAC Gift Fund has been set up through the Newhouse School at Syracuse University to support this effort.
[1] The list does not include everyone that may qualify for lowered processing fees with media status as defined under the FOIA statute. This list focuses only on organizations that hold themselves out as news media, and reporters for whom this is their profession.
We have added 12 decisions of a procedural or substantive nature filed between May 14, 2017 and May 20, 2017. 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.
- CAE 1:2017cv00034 — Ford v. Ciraolo-Klepper et al
- May 18, 2017: ORDER Granting [13] Motion to Dismiss Based on Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction signed by District Judge Dale A. Drozd on 05/18/2017. CASE CLOSED. (Flores, E)
We have added 168 documents from 21 FOIA cases filed between May 14, 2017 and May 20, 2017. 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 OVERSIGHT v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE et al (filed May 17, 2017)
American Oversight submitted FOIA requests to the Department of Commerce, Department of Education, Department of Labor, Department of Treasury, and the Small Business Administration for records concerning communications or meetings between agency personnel and Ivanka Trump. The agencies acknowledged receipt of the requests read more…
The latest available case-by-case records from the federal courts show that Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits challenging the withholding of records have risen since President Trump assumed office. The number of recorded FOIA filings in April climbed to 63 – the highest level recorded for at least 25 years. And although the month is not complete, additional filings during May appear headed even higher with 60 new FOIA lawsuits already filed.
If the pace of FOIA filings during the first seven-plus months of this fiscal year continues at the same rate, FY 2017 will see upwards of 579 FOIA suits filed. This would be up from 512 such suits filed during the last fiscal year of the Obama Administration.
Figure 1. FOIA Lawsuits Filed in Federal District Court by Fiscal Year
The latest request-by-request data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that the average number of days unanswered FOIA requests have been waiting has been climbing. As of the end of March, there were 2,410 requests pending at the EPA. On average these had been waiting 321 calendar days without any response.
The number of pending requests at the EPA has remaining fairly steady since June 2015. However, wait times have increased from an average of 253 days back then to 321 days in the latest data. See Figure 1.
Figure 1. Backlog of Unanswered EPA FOIA RequestsThis rise has taken place even though an increasing proportion of these pending cases are classified by EPA as simple, rather than complex, requests.
To view these EPA backlog figures by processing track, or see FOIA backlogs and wait times for other federal agencies, go to the FOIA Project’s special
web query tool.
We have added 122 documents from 19 FOIA cases filed between May 7, 2017 and May 13, 2017. 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 OVERSIGHT v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (filed May 9, 2017)
American Oversight submitted a FOIA request to the Department of Justice for records concerning why Acting Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who appeared before the Ninth Circuit Jan. 27 to defend President Trump’s travel ban, did not sign the government’s brief. Prior to becoming Acting Solicitor General, Francisco had been a partner at the law firm of Jones Day, which submitted an amicus brief before the Ninth Circuit on behalf of a business client whose interests were adverse to those of the government read more…
We have added 6 decisions of a procedural or substantive nature filed between May 7, 2017 and May 13, 2017. These are associated with 6 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.
- AZ 2:2015cv01985 — Rojas v. Federal Aviation Administration
- May 8, 2017: ORDER denying [23] Plaintiff's Motion to Amend Judgment. See order for details. Signed by Senior Judge Neil V Wake on 5/5/2017.(LMR)
We have added 97 documents from 15 FOIA cases filed between April 30, 2017 and May 6, 2017. 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.
- JOHNSON v. Central Intelligence Agency (filed May 4, 2017)
Amanda Johnson, a doctoral student at MIT, submitted a FOIA request to the CIA for records concerning the development and operation of the agency’s Twitter account. The agency acknowledged receipt of her request. Johnson contacted the agency on several occasions and was told her request was being processed read more…
We have added 5 decisions of a procedural or substantive nature filed between April 30, 2017 and May 6, 2017. These are associated with 5 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.
- CAC 2:2016cv02855 — Mike Ireland v. Internal Revenue Service
- May 1, 2017: MINUTES OF Defendant Internal Revenue Service's MOTION for Partial Summary Judgment [24] before Judge Christina A. Snyder: The Court GRANTS the IRS's motion for summary judgment with respect to Items 1, 2, 3, and 4 of plaintiff's FOIA request. (Made JS-6. Case Terminated.) Court Reporter: Laura Elias. (jp)
The backlog of unprocessed FOIA requests to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) continues to climb. In just a two-year period, the backlog of unanswered FOIA requests has tripled, climbing from 17,998 at the end of December 2014 to 46,550 at the end of December 2016. See Figure 1.
This means that countless requesters – including reporters, scholars, and those subject to immigration actions – are not getting the information they need to check against unlawful actions and to better hold the government accountable to the governed.
Figure 1. Backlog of Unanswered USCIS FOIA RequestsLittle improvement has occurred in USCIS’s processing of FOIA requests. While the number of FOIA requests the agency receives has been increasing, during the last quarter of FY 2016 the number of closed FOIA cases took a precipitous tumble, falling from a monthly average of 13,913 in June 2016 to only 211 during October 2016. Closures have only recovered slightly to just 1,400 during December 2016.
These figures are based upon an independent analysis of request-by-request data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act in response to the quarterly survey conducted by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University for the FOIA Project.
The latest figures on FOIA backlogs and wait times for federal agencies responding to TRAC’s latest quarterly survey are now posted on FOIAproject.org. Updated figures are available for:
- DOD-Army through March 2017
- DHS-Headquarters through December 2016
- DHS-US Citizenship & Immigration Services through December 2016
- Drug Enforcement Administration through March 2017
- Environmental Protection Agency through March 2017
- Treasury-IRS through March 2017
- National Security Division through March 2017
- DOJ-Bureau of Prisons through December 2016
- DOJ-Civil Rights through December 2016
- DOJ-Public Affairs through March 2017
- DOJ-Office of Legal Policy through March 2017
- DOJ-Office of Legislative Affairs through March 2017
- DOJ-Office of Information Policy through March 2017
- DOJ-Office of Deputy Attorney General through March 2017
- DOJ-Office of Associate to the Attorney General through March 2017
- DOJ-Office of Attorney General through March 2017
- DOJ-Component Not Assigned through March 2017
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