The Trump administration has ruled that gun shops are “essential” businesses that should remain open as other businesses are closed to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. Gun-control groups are balking, calling it a policy that puts profits over public health after intense lobbying by the gun industry.
Read morePeeking into chambers, a self-appointed Supreme Court watchdog on Tuesday tallied up the private flights and other hidden perks justices enjoy when invited to speak at universities.
Read moreA federal court in Washington upheld a majority of Freedom of Information Act request withholdings challenged by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman who seeks every record in federal intelligence agencies’ files that mentions his name. Gellman, who is writing a book about intelligence gathering, reported on documents leaked to him from Edward Snowden.
Read moreCitizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement et al. in federal court to stop them from destroying “records documenting mistreatment of individuals detained in ICE custody, including records of detainee deaths, sexual assault and abuse, civil rights violations, inhumane solitary confinement practices, and violations of ICE detention standards.”
Read moreThe Legal Aid Society sued the Department of Housing and Urban Development in federal court for information on its plan to withhold rental assistance to any household whose leaseholder is not an eligible immigrant, regardless of the presence of eligible U.S. citizens or immigrants in the household.
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By this time last year, more than 20 million plane and cruise ship passengers had submitted to the U.S. government’s facial-recognition software. As to how that information is processed or retained, however, the records are not public.
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The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review whether draft documents that preceded new regulations on power plants and manufacturing facilities are subject to public disclosure.
Read moreFOIA warrior Jason Leopold sued the Department of Justice in federal court for records on its sentencing records on Roger Stone, and President Trump’s involvement in it, in federal court.
Read moreThe Ninth Circuit ruled against a firefighter seeking records relating to the Yarnell Hill Fire of 2013, which killed 19 firefighters in Arizona. The court ruled that even if the U.S. Department of Agriculture once held the records the firefighter seeks, there is no question that the department’s search for them was adequate.
Read morePhotojournalist Matthew Schrier sued the State Department in federal court for information it “clearly possesses,” to use in his lawsuit against Qatar Islamic Bank, which he says underwrote his kidnapping, imprisonment and torture in Syria.
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While the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump included no documents produced by the White House, a first in modern U.S. history, records may soon surface shedding more light on the withholding of aid to Ukraine.
Read moreA federal court in Washington ruled that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence properly withheld certain documents relating to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that had been requested under the Freedom of Information Act by a Buzzfeed reporter and government transparency nonprofit director.
Read moreAmerican Oversight sued the State Department and CIA for refusing to respond to FOIA requests for “All whistleblower complaints submitted to the CIA Inspector General containing allegations that concern the conduct of former Director Mike Pompeo, or containing any other allegations of unlawful conduct by former Director Pompeo.”
Read moreThe Council on American Islamic Relations sued the Department Of Homeland Security in Seattle Federal Court, for information on “a directive issued to CBP (Customs and Border Protection) officers to detain and interrogate Iranian-Americans” at the Canadian border.
Read morePatrick Eddington, with the Cato Institute, sued the FBI for information on Operation Vulgar Betrayal, its surveillance of “mosques, schools, and community meetings in Bridgeview, Illinois,” in a federal FOIA complaint.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is knowingly hiding some radio traffic recordings from the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire near Prescott, Arizona, instead telling a firefighter who sued to get the recordings that they were turned over to state investigators and made public shortly after the fire, the firefighter’s attorney told a Ninth Circuit panel Friday.
Read moreAn immigration attorney sued the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in federal court for information about its alleged “efforts to systematically strip U.S. citizens of their citizenship” under the Trump administration.
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The American Civil Liberties Union sued federal immigration officials Wednesday, demanding the search warrants for a raid last year at a Dallas-area electronics repair company that netted over 280 arrests.
Read moreThe Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law sued the FBI for information on its Foreign Influence Task Force, established in 2017 “to identify and counteract malign foreign influence operations targeting the United States,” in a federal FOIA complaint.
Read moreThe New York Times sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons in federal court for information on the procedures followed in housing Jeffrey Epstein at the Metropolitan Correction Center, including his being placed on and taken off suicide watch, and video footage.
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