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Court of Appeals Decisions

Furrow v. BOP, No. 10-1628, 2011 WL 1740067 (7th Cir. May 4, 2011) (unpublished disposition).  Holding:  Vacating district court's decision dismissing the action on mootness grounds; and remanding for further proceedings.  The Seventh Circuit vacates the decision of the district court dismissing the case on mootness grounds and remands the case for further proceedings.  Contrary to the district court's finding that "the agency 'provided [plaintiff] or made available to him for his inspection all the agency records he requested, except for those which [he] does not contend have been improperly withheld,'" the Circuit concludes that the record demonstrates that "a case or controversy remains" because plaintiff alleges that "the agency has not provided everything [he] wants, and he disputes the validity of the exemptions the BOP claims."  The Circuit notes that "BOP did not give the district court any information about the nature of the documents withheld and the exemptions asserted as to each document, nor did the agency take the alternative approach of submitting the undisclosed documents to the court for in camera inspection and evaluation."  The Circuit finds that until BOP either substantiates its claims of exemption or turns over all requested records to plaintiff, a "redressable dispute remains between the parties."

Callaway v. U.S. Dep't of Treasury, No. 08-5480, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 11941 (D.C. Cir. June 2, 2009) (unpublished disposition) (per curiam).  The district court erred in granting defendant EOUSA summary judgment on the issue of whether EOUSA had redacted any information from an audiotape it released to plaintiff.  Plaintiff provided sufficient evidence to create a factual dispute on this issue. 

District Court Decisions

Brown v. FBI, No. 10-1292, 2011 WL 2516420 (D.D.C. June 24, 2011) (Lamberth, J.).  Holding:  Denying as futile plaintiff's motion for leave to amend for all FOIA claims, except one brought against the Tax Division of DOJ; denying plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the basis that he has not demonstrated that he exhausted his administrative remedies; and denying FBI's motion to dismiss.  The court denies plaintiff's motion for summary judgment with respect to his FOIA claim against the FBI, because he "has failed to point to any documents or any part of the record to show what the exemptions the FBI claimed were, let alone that those claims were erroneous." 

Potomac Navigation, Inc. v. U.S. Maritime Administration, No. 09-217, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116673 (D. Md. Dec. 15, 2009) (Nickerson, J.).  The court denies agencies' motions for summary judgment.  The affidavit submitted by the U.S. Maritime Administration failed to address plaintiff's concerns regarding deficiencies in the document production.  Similarly, EPA's declaration inadequately addressed questions raised by plaintiff and instead provided "generic recitation of the legal standard and the repeated bald assertions that 'EPA had conducted a reasonable search for records responsive to plaintiff's FOIA requests'. . . ."