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Freedom of Information Act

By: Derek Hawkins//September 8, 2015//

Freedom of Information Act

By: Derek Hawkins//September 8, 2015//

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Civil

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: BAUER and SYKES, Circuit Judges, and REAGAN, Chief District Judge

Freedom of Information Act

No. 14-3733 David Rubman v. USCIS

Disclosure of a single document when numerous documents requested in relation to H1-B visa was inadequate to satisfy request.

“It’s possible that Rubman’s request was too “non-specific and unwieldy” to permit an effective search, as the district judge thought, though we note that CIS has never specifically lodged that objection, and the search was restricted to a four-year period. But if so, that’s the exact situation addressed by 6 C.F.R. § 5.3(b): If Rubman’s request did not “reasonably describe records,” CIS was required to “give [him] an opportunity to discuss [his] request” and clarify it. We have no doubt that CIS believed in good faith that it was being helpful and efficient by generating a summary data table in response to Rubman’s FOIA request. We certainly don’t want to discourage agencies from providing raw data, database query results, or newly generated charts and tables when a FOIA request asks for them, when there are no other responsive records available, or when a requester consents to one of those formats. But when Rubman asked for “all documents reflecting statistics” and then objected to CIS’s decision to respond with a newly generated summary table, the agency was required to sea”

Reversed and Remanded

Full Text


Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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