MacLeod v. DHS, No. 15-1792, 2017 WL 4220398 (D.D.C. Sept. 21, 2017) (Jackson, J.)

MacLeod v. DHS, No. 15-1792, 2017 WL 4220398 (D.D.C. Sept. 21, 2017) (Jackson, J.)

Re:  Requests for certain information concerning plaintiff, plaintiff's attempt to obtain diplomatic status, the Cold War, and Russia

Disposition:  Granting defendants' motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies:  First, "[t]he conceded facts in the declarations that NSA and GSA have submitted establish that neither agency received a FOIA request from [plaintiff]; consequently, the Court finds that NSA and GSA are not improperly withholding records from [plaintiff] under the FOIA, and are therefore entitled to summary judgment."  Second, the court finds that "rather than exercising his right to appeal, [plaintiff] filed the instant lawsuit."  "In accordance with established precedent, [plaintiff's] failure to avail himself of an administrative appeal clearly forecloses his ability to challenge the CIA's Glomar response in this lawsuit."
   
• Procedural Requirements, Searching for Responsive Records:  "Having made the unrebutted representation that it does not maintain the records that [plaintiff] requested, [the court finds that] DHS is likewise entitled to summary judgment on [plaintiff's] FOIA claim."
   
• Procedural Requirements, Proper FOIA Requests:  The court holds that, "with respect to the bulk of [plaintiff's] records request, the documents he purports to seek are not reasonably described, such that a response would be overly burdensome to the agency."  The court explains that "[i]t is clear on the face of [plaintiff's] letter that the categories of records he seeks are not at all specific, and the records sought are far from reasonably described."  "Courts in this district readily find similar requests for 'any' and 'all' records that relate to some general topic to be overly-broad and invalid."