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Friday, April 19, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Judge Tosses FOIA Demand on Trade Center

WASHINGTON (CN) - A federal judge says a complainant has no right to raw data that the National Institute of Standards and Technology used to model the collapse of one of the World Trade Centers.

Michael Quick's original 2009 complaint does not say why he wants the information, only that he "sent a FOIA request to the United States Department of Commerce, seeking agency records pertaining to the raw data used for simulation models produced by the agency concerning the collapse of the World Trade Center Building 7 that occurred in New York City on September 11, 2001."

Quick says he paid the agency $824.98 for search and duplication work. But he says the NIST, an agency of the Department of Commerce agency, withheld raw data used in "architectural and engineering modeling of the collapse of World Trade Center 7."

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly dismissed Quick's claims, and sided with the National Institute for Standards and Technology, which said it had "conducted a reasonable search for records," and "produced all disclosable records."

"The basis for Quick's cross-motion for summary judgment is not easy to define; he has repeatedly shifted his position and redefined his arguments with each successive filing," the judge wrote.

Quick filed his complaint 2009 against the U.S. Department of Commerce and NIST.

Kollar-Kotelly denied Quick's motion and dismissed the action in its entirety.

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