Ameen v. U.S. Dep't of State, No. 21-1399, 2021 WL 4148532 (D.D.C. Sept. 13, 2021) (Howell, J.)

Ameen v. U.S. Dep't of State, No. 21-1399, 2021 WL 4148532 (D.D.C. Sept. 13, 2021) (Howell, J.)

Re:  Requests submitted by plaintiff's former counsel for records concerning plaintiff

Disposition:  Denying plaintiff's motion to dismiss

• Litigation Considerations, Standing:  The court relates that "Defendants contend that plaintiff has not suffered an injury-in-fact because the Federal Defender's staff – plaintiff's counsel in his extradition proceeding – made the FOIA requests at issue, rather than the plaintiff himself."  "Defendants concede that a lawyer may make a request on behalf of a client, but argue that this is not the case here because the requests did not state that counsel was representing plaintiff for the purpose of obtaining documents under FOIA, nor did the requests 'clearly state' they were issued on plaintiff's behalf."  "Plaintiff responds that the language in the requests as well as the government’s statements 'sufficiently show that the requests were made on behalf of [plaintiff].'"  "Defendants' motion to dismiss hinges on the following question:  what must be included in a FOIA request brought by an attorney acting in that capacity to establish that the attorney's client is the 'requester' for purposes of FOIA and therefore that the client has standing to bring a FOIA claim?"  "Although the D.C. Circuit 'has never specifically articulated the requirements for filing a FOIA request on behalf of another,' . . . the caselaw in this area helps inform where a line may be drawn to distinguish between cases in which a plaintiff has standing from those where the plaintiff does not."  "Here, the language used in the underlying document requests sufficiently indicated that the FOIA requests were made on behalf of plaintiff."  "[T]he Court rejects defendants' proposed distinction between (1) cases in which counsel expressly states that counsel represents a client for purposes of the FOIA request and (2) cases in which counsel expressly states that counsel represents a client in another matter and makes the request within the scope of that representation. In either case, the FOIA request is made on behalf of the client, and the client has standing, after the attorney-client relationship with original counsel is over, to enforce FOIA statutory rights if the request is denied."