Seavey v. DOJ, No. 15-1303, 2017 WL 3112816 (D.D.C. July 20, 2017) (Kessler, J.)

Seavey v. DOJ, No. 15-1303, 2017 WL 3112816 (D.D.C. July 20, 2017) (Kessler, J.)

Re:  Request for records concerning FBI's role in anti-war movement in St. Louis in 1960s and 1970s

Disposition:  Granting plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment

• Procedural Requirements, Responding to FOIA Requests:  "[T]he Court concludes that [plaintiff] is entitled to have the FBI process her request at a significantly faster rate than the 500 pages per month proposed by the FBI[]" and "direct[s] the FBI to begin processing [plaintiff's] request at a rate of not less than 2,850 pages per month."  The court first notes that "[a]s the submissions of the parties demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact as to whether the FBI failed to timely make a determination on . . . FOIA Request, [plaintiff] is entitled to summary judgment[]" on that issue and "the sole remaining question is what remedy [plaintiff] is entitled to."  The court then rejects the FBI's policy in which "the FBI assigns requests to various 'queues' based on the number of pages of potentially responsive documents."  The court finds that "[t]he FBI's administrative efficiency rationale is simply without merit."  "Additionally, the FBI has failed to justify its contention that processing particularly large requests, such as [plaintiff's] at a faster pace would 'monopolize' its resources and delay the processing of smaller requests."  Specifically, the court finds that "[the] data [provided by the FBI] doesn't actually shed any light on the key question: whether processing particularly large requests at a faster rate would materially slow down the processing of other requests."  Also, the court finds that "[o]ne further point highlights why the FBI's position in this case is untenable."  "The FBI has assigned each subject a distinct FOIA tracking number, meaning that for the purpose of internal tracking the FBI treats each request for info on a single subject as a distinct FOIA request."  "Yet, for the purpose of responding to [plaintiff's] request, the FBI treats these otherwise distinct requests as a single request and caps the rate at which it will process them at 500 pages per month."  "Thus, while the FBI could treat these as distinct requests, each subject to its own 500–page cap, it chooses to treat them as a single request subject to one cap, which results in a lengthier processing time."  "The Court does not believe that this kind of disparate treatment can be rationally justified."