Kowal v. DOJ, No. 18-938, 2022 WL 4016582 (D.D.C. Sept. 2, 2022) (Kelly, J.)

Kowal v. DOJ, No. 18-938, 2022 WL 4016582 (D.D.C. Sept. 2, 2022) (Kelly, J.)

Re:  Request for records concerning capital defendant that Federal Defender represents in his post-conviction hearings, as well as several of his co-defendants

Disposition:  Granting defendants’ motion for summary judgment; denying plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment

• Exemption 7(E):  The court relates that “[w]hen the Court previously considered the DEA’s Exemption 7(E) withholdings, it distinguished between information described as part of the DEA’s ‘internal system of developing criminal activity information and intelligence,’ . . . and a more nebulous category of ‘material’ and ‘information’ that ‘would reveal sensitive, non-public references to the DEA’s Agents’ Manual.’”  “The Court granted Defendants summary judgment as to all but the latter.”  “So now that Defendants have clarified that there is no separate latter category, it is self-evident that no category of withholdings remain.”  “In other words, the Court has already found all the DEA’s Exemption 7(E) withholdings proper.”  “Even if the Court had not yet ruled on the specific withholdings [plaintiff] identifies – ‘quantitative and qualitative drug classification criteria for violators, derived from the DEA Agents’ Manual,’ as well as ‘assessments of numerical class of drug violator and internal drug violator codes, also derived from the DEA Agents’ Manual’ – Defendants have shown that they are protected by Exemption 7(E).”  The court finds that “[s]uch information plainly ‘relates to law enforcement techniques, policies, and procedures.’”
   
• Litigation Considerations, “Reasonably Segregable” Requirements:  “[N]ow that Defendants have shown that all the DEA's Exemption 7(E) withholdings are proper, the Court will also find that the DEA released all ‘reasonably segregable portions’ of the documents at issue, for [the] same reasons already explained as to all the other withholdings.”