Power the Future v. Dep’t of the Interior, No. 24-2453, 2025 WL 2732745 (D.D.C. Sept. 25, 2025) (Bates, J.)

Power the Future v. Dep’t of the Interior, No. 24-2453, 2025 WL 2732745 (D.D.C. Sept. 25, 2025) (Bates, J.)

Re: Request for text messages sent to or from Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, from January 21 to February 28, 2021 and from June 30 to July 30, 2022

Disposition:  Granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Evidentiary Showing, Adequacy of Search:  The court holds that “Interior has shown ‘beyond material doubt that its search was “reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents,”’ so it is entitled to summary judgment.”  “Here, Interior has explained that the devices containing the responsive records were lost or damaged, so the records cannot be retrieved.”  “In response to [plaintiff’s] first declaration positing alternative ways to recover the records, Interior further clarified that its records management policy puts the onus on the record custodian . . . to either take screen captures of messages that should be considered federal records or use backup services.”  “Because the phones at issue have been lost or damaged – hence, screen captures are not recoverable – and [the custodian] did not request backup services, the records therefore remain irretrievable.”  “Moreover, the cellular carrier does not retain text message records long enough for them to be retrievable that way and [the custodian’s] second phone’s SIM card does not store text message data.”  “[Plaintiff’s] first declaration offers only ‘speculative claims’ about the recoverability of [the custodian’s] text messages that are not enough to overcome the ‘presumption of good faith’ accorded to Interior’s declarations.”  “The Court has some sympathy for [plaintiff], which cannot obtain records to which it may otherwise be entitled under FOIA due to the arguable shortcomings of Interior’s records management policy and the fortuity of [the custodian’s] lost and then damaged phones.”  “However, that does not affect the adequacy of Interior’s search.”