Topic
Every decision we've filed under FOIA.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court dismissal of a pro se plaintiff's lawsuit against major media companies. The court held that the plaintiff's allegations were wholly insubstantial and frivolous, depriving the federal court of subject matter jurisdiction.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed a dismissal order regarding two plaintiffs who entered sensitive payment information on retail websites. The court held that the surreptitious recording of complete credit card numbers by session replay code constitutes a concrete injury analogous to the common-law tort of intrusion upon seclusion.
The Sixth Circuit reversed and remanded a district court ruling that denied attorneys' fees to a watchdog group under the Freedom of Information Act. The court held that a federal agency's mid-litigation release of documents, prompted by a third-party submitter's change of position, constitutes a voluntary change sufficient to trigger fee eligibility.
The Sixth Circuit reversed in part and affirmed in part a district court ruling regarding a Freedom of Information Act dispute between a watchdog group and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The court held that the agency improperly withheld certain logistical details and employee names while upholding most redactions under FOIA exemptions.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the conviction of Hatchet M. Speed for possessing unregistered silencers. The court held that the National Firearms Act does not require a device to be fully operable to qualify as a silencer and that Speed failed to rebut the presumption of constitutionality regarding the registration regime.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court judgment granting summary judgment to the Patent and Trademark Office, holding that draft decisions and related emails circulated among administrative patent judges are protected from disclosure under the deliberative process privilege of the Freedom of Information Act.
The Ninth Circuit held that the National Voter Registration Act does not grant the public a right to access raw statewide voter registration lists. Although the court affirmed that the plaintiff had standing and that the claim was ripe, it ruled that the statute only mandates disclosure of records concerning the implementation of list maintenance programs, not the lists themselves.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that Hawaii violated the National Voter Registration Act by refusing to provide a statewide voter list. The court held that while the plaintiff had standing and the claim was ripe, the statute does not require states to disclose voter lists themselves.
The Tenth Circuit denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by Dr. Darrell L. Whitman, ruling that the extraordinary writ cannot substitute for established statutory remedies. The court held that judicial intervention cannot override the Executive Branch's absolute discretion to prosecute crimes or compel specific employment actions.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the FBI, ruling that a FOIA request for email header metadata was moot because the agency had already provided the requested recipient information. The court further held that the Freedom of Information Act does not require federal agencies to create new records to generate metadata that is not already stored in a separate, retrievable format.