12-2273 Appleton Papers Inc. v. EPA

By PETE YOST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department reported Thursday it is dropping its proposal to let federal law enforcement agencies in rare cases tell Freedom of Information Act requesters that the government has no records on a subject, when it actually does. In a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary ...

Washington (Dolan) — A federal agency’s response to a Freedom of Information Act request is a “report” within the meaning of the False Claims Act’s public disclosure bar, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-3 decision.

This is Sunshine Week. The focus of the Sunshine Week initiative is to promote government transparency and freedom of information. Thanks to the folks over at INFOdocket, I learned about the recent launching of FOIA.gov by the U.S. Department of Justice. Per the news release, FOIA.gov “brings together all the FOIA data collected by the department on behalf of the ...

FOIA Exemptions; personnel rules Because Exemption 2 to FOIA encompasses only records relating to employee relations and human resources issues, it does not apply to a request for explosives maps and data. Exemption 2 shields only those records relating to “personnel rules and practices.” When used as an adjective in this manner, the key statutory word “personnel” refers to human ...

FOIA Personal privacy; corporations Corporations do not have “personal privacy” for the purposes of the exemption in 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(7)(C). AT&T argues that the word “personal” in Exemption 7(C) incorporates the statutory definition of “person,” which includes corporations, §551(2). But adjectives do not always reflect the meaning of corresponding nouns. “Person” is a defined term in the statute; “personal” is ...

If you aren't familiar with Government Attic, it is a newly re-designed website that "provides electronic copies of hundreds of interesting Federal Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act."