Cause of Action Inst. v. IRS, No. 16-2354, 2019 WL 3225751 (D.D.C. July 17, 2019) (Jackson, J.)

Cause of Action Inst. v. IRS, No. 16-2354, 2019 WL 3225751 (D.D.C. July 17, 2019) (Jackson, J.)

Re:  Request for communications and records exchanged between IRS and United States Congress Joint Committee on Taxation from 2009 until present

Disposition:  Denying defendant's motion to dismiss

• Litigation Considerations, Jurisdiction:  First, the court holds that "notwithstanding section 552(a)(4)(B)'s reference to 'jurisdiction[,]' Courts have long considered FOIA disputes that pertain to the nature of the defendant entity (i.e., is it an 'agency'?) or the nature of the records at issue (i.e., are they 'agency records'?) to relate to the merits of a plaintiff's claim that the defendant has violated the FOIA, rather than a court's authority to adjudicate the case."  "This means that a Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss brought solely on the grounds that the court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction because the records are not 'agency records' necessarily fails."  Second, the court holds that "as far as immunity is concerned, the only real question is whether the claim at issue is a valid one, which is just another way of assessing the claim's merit, not the court's power to address the claim."  Third, the court finds that "[t]here is no question that the matter of whether the plaintiff has a cause of action under the law and is entitled to recovery assuming that the facts are as he alleges them to be (i.e., the merits issue), is unrelated to the question of 'the courts' statutory or constitutional power to adjudicate the case.'"  "And 'established jurisprudence [mandates] that the failure of a cause of action does not automatically produce a failure of jurisdiction[.]'"  "This also necessarily means that dismissal for lack of jurisdiction does not arise based merely on a plaintiff’s alleged failure to present a complaint the contains plausible allegations concerning a claim's merits prerequisites – here, that 'an agency' has 'improperly' 'withheld' 'agency records.'"  "Instead, that failure warrants dismissal on the grounds that the plaintiff has failed to state a cognizable claim."  Overall, the court finds that "[a] government agency's burden of demonstrating that the requested documents are not 'agency records' cannot be logically reconciled with treating that question as a jurisdictional prerequisite, which would require the plaintiff to prove that the requested documents are 'agency records.'"  "It may well turn out that the agency's proof establishes that there are no 'agency records' at issue in this case, and thus, that [plaintiff's] FOIA claims are meritless."  "But as the IRS appears to concede, that is 'a factual challenge[.]'"  "And, at this stage of the litigation, this Court must accept [plaintiff's] allegations of fact, as pleaded in its complaint, as if they are true."  "For now, it suffices to conclude that, accepting its allegations as true, [plaintiff] has made a plausible claim for relief under the FOIA."