Bush v. USDA, No. 21-5267, 2022 WL 1701528 (D.C. Cir. May 25, 2022) (per curiam)

Bush v. USDA, No. 21-5267, 2022 WL 1701528 (D.C. Cir. May 25, 2022) (per curiam)

Re:  Request for corn and soybean production about certain parts of Iowa

Disposition:  Granting government's motion for summary affirmance

• Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search:  "With respect to the district court's order granting summary judgment for [the government], the court correctly concluded that the government's search for records in response to [the requester's] FOIA request was adequate, in light of the declarations submitted by [the government]." 
   
• Litigation Considerations, Pattern-or-Practice Claims:  "The district court also correctly concluded that [the requester] failed to establish that the Department of Agriculture has a policy or practice of violating FOIA." 
   
• Attorney's Fees:  "[T]he court correctly declined to consider [the requester's] constitutional challenge to existing precedent with respect to the availability of attorney fees for pro se FOIA litigants, because [the requester] did not 'substantially prevail' in this case and would thus have been ineligible for attorney fees whether they are available to pro se litigants or not." 
   
• Litigation Considerations, Pleadings:  "[I]nsofar as [the requester] purported to raise claims against both the Department and the United States as separate defendants, the question of whether the United States is a proper defendant in a FOIA case is merely academic because, as discussed above, his claims lacked merit regardless of the identity of the defendant."