Madel v. DOJ, No. 18-487, 2020 WL 4004210 (D. Minn. July 15, 2020) (Magnuson, J.)

Madel v. DOJ, No. 18-487, 2020 WL 4004210 (D. Minn. July 15, 2020) (Magnuson, J.)

Re:  Requests for oxycodone-distribution information in Georgia from 2012 to May 2017, and in Michigan from 2006 to May 2017, for three specified entities

Disposition:  Denying defendants' motion for summary judgment

• Exemption 4:  The court holds that defendants "have failed to meet their burden to establish even that less-strict standard here."  The court relates that defendants' declaration "is . . . devoid of specificity" because it "relies in whole on [the submitter's] response to the DEA's notice about the FOIA request, which itself summarily asserts that the information 'could reveal the identity of customers and market share at the state and three-digit zip code level.'"  Additionally, defendants' declarant "concludes, '[i]t is my assessment that [the submitter] provided the withheld information to DEA under an assurance of privacy.'"  The court holds that "[t]he declaration offers precisely the type of 'barren assertions' that the Court of Appeals previously rejected."