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scott hodes
I'm a Washington D.C. based FOIA attorney
Recent Activity
And Now For Something Different
I just want to take a moment to let all of you know that I am leaving private practice and returning to government service. As a result, the FOIA blog won't continue in its present form -- there won't be... Continue reading
Posted May 22, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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Supreme Court Hears Exemption 4 Argument
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Exemption 4 yesterday - here is the requester's report on the proceedings which will largely depend on the meaning of the word confidential under the FOIA as the Supreme Court sees it. Continue reading
Posted Apr 23, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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Exemption 4 To Be Argued At Supreme Court 4/22/19
A rare occurrence will be happening next week. The Supreme Court will hear a FOIA case and the issue will be one that the Supreme Court has never ruled on - FOIA Exemption 4. For years, decisions by the Court... Continue reading
Posted Apr 18, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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Candidate Proposes FOIA for Congress
The Washington Examiner has this on a recent Democratic Presidential forum in which candidate Julian Castro proposes making Congress subject to the FOIA. While it is an unlikely occurrence, it would increase transparency in government. Currently only portions of the... Continue reading
Posted Apr 2, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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FOIA.Gov Portal Not Forwarding Requests To Agencies
Here's a Sunshine Week celebratory story. I made a request last month to an agency via FOIA.Gov (per the agency's instructions). I was assigned an ID for the request from FOIA.Gov. I checked the status today and was told that... Continue reading
Posted Mar 13, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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FBI Building Appraisal and Offers Ordered Released
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the General Services Administration to release its appraisal of the value of the FBI's Headquarters building and any offers it received for the building according to Federal News... Continue reading
Posted Mar 7, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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FBI Loses Exemption 7E Glomar Case
The FBI has lost its novel attempt to use a Glomar response for Exemption 7E. The case brought by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in the District Court for the District of Columbia found that the FBI's... Continue reading
Posted Mar 5, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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HUD FOIA Tracking System Down
ProPublica has this on HUD's contract for the system for processing and tracking FOIA requests. The contract ran out during the government shutdown and hasn't yet been renewed - so the agency is scrambling to process and track FOIA requests.... Continue reading
Posted Feb 14, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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Supreme Court Sets Date for Exemption 4 Arguments
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on April 22 in the Exemption 4 case brought by an association attempting to stop the government from releasing information to the Argus Leader newspaper. The Argus Leader has additional details here. Continue reading
Posted Feb 12, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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Nestle Trade Secrets Protected Pursuant To Exemption 4
Courthouse News Service has this on an attempt to learn more about Nestle's use of water from public lands -- a District Court in the District of Columbia ruled that the global giant's trade secrets were protected pursuant to Exemption... Continue reading
Posted Feb 7, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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Deloitte Enters FOIA Management Space
Deloitte, a big four accounting firm, has started a FOIA practice to help agencies manage FOIA requests. As many readers know, this space has largely been inhabited by smaller vendors - it will be interesting to see if this product... Continue reading
Posted Feb 5, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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Oversight Idea
I just spent time trying to find an agency's FOIA liaison because the agency failed to properly read the request and closed it. I finally found the contact by a google search because the agency did not post the liaison... Continue reading
Posted Feb 4, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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Supreme Court to Hear Exemption 4 Case
Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an Exemption 4 case where the requester, the South Dakota Argus Leader has sought information on the food stamp program - namely how much money the different retailers get from participating in... Continue reading
Posted Jan 14, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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EPA Denied Stay In Processing Wheeler Emails
The Washington Post has this on the EPA's attempt to not have to process interim EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler's emails until 2022. A court denied this stay and ordered the EPA to release the documents within the next ten months.... Continue reading
Posted Jan 9, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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Interior Proposes Updated FOIA Regulations
Even though its largely closed due to a lapse in funding, the Interior Department has published new proposed FOIA regulations. The new regulations would allow the agency to limit the amount of requests made by a requester in a month... Continue reading
Posted Jan 3, 2019 at The FOIA blog
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Farm Bill - No FOIA Provisions Were Included
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has this on the recently passed Farm Bill. The House of Representatives attempted to sneak through an anti-transparency FOIA exemption concerning SNAP data but that was not included in the final bill. However,... Continue reading
Posted Dec 21, 2018 at The FOIA blog
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The FOIA Project: DOJ Under Reports Attorney Fee Awards
The FOIA Project is out with a report that finds that the Department of Justice, which must report attorney fee reports by law, under reports the amount of the fees. Only a fraction of cases in litigation result in attorney... Continue reading
Posted Dec 19, 2018 at The FOIA blog
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DC Circuit Rules Trump Tax Records Exempt Under FOIA
The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled that Donald J. Trump's personal tax returns are exempt from release under FOIA Exemption 3. It's not a surprising result as 6103 of the IRS statute prevents tax... Continue reading
Posted Dec 18, 2018 at The FOIA blog
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Interior Names Political As FOIA Officer
The Hill has this on the Interior Department's naming of a political appointee to be the Chief FOIA Officer. The article also discusses Interior's belief that the uptick on FOIA requests and litigation is caused by its FOIA processes not... Continue reading
Posted Dec 11, 2018 at The FOIA blog
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Discovery Ordered in Clinton Email FOIA Case
Judge Royce Lamberth of the District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered discovery in a FOIA case against the State Department concerning its search for emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The most interesting part of... Continue reading
Posted Dec 6, 2018 at The FOIA blog
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Oversight Idea #2: FOIA Portals
Last Summer, I posted this on the blog about problems with FOIAOnline, which is the first of two FOIA portals used by multiple agencies of the Federal Government. At the time, the portal had been redesigned but the site was... Continue reading
Posted Dec 4, 2018 at The FOIA blog
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Cert Sought at Supreme Court in Exemption 4 Case
The Scotus Blog reports on an Exemption 4 case that has wound its way through the 8th Circuit and may end up being the next FOIA case to be heard by the Supreme Court. The case concerns a request by... Continue reading
Posted Nov 30, 2018 at The FOIA blog
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EPA Tries to Speed Up FOIA Releases
E&E News has this on the EPA's statements about its attempts to speed up releases of certain FOIA requests in which the agency has decided to involve high level senior, (often political appointed) officials. This procedure has been criticized as... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2018 at The FOIA blog
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Follow Me On Twitter
I'm at twitter @thefoiablog. Please follow me, thanks! Continue reading
Posted Nov 28, 2018 at The FOIA blog
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Ideas for FOIA Oversight - FOIA Guidance
In October, I wrote about the DOJ's FOIA Guide and the fact that it hadn't been updated since 2015. As of today, it still hasn't been updated. The failure to provide substantive guidance on various FOIA matters, which have been... Continue reading
Posted Nov 27, 2018 at The FOIA blog
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