Cause of Action has filed a lawsuit over the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) definition of a record in the processing of FOIA requests. The D.C. Circuit ruled on the issue in 2016, and basically disagreed with the way the government was deciding how some material located in FOIA requests was found to be outside of the scope of the FOIA request being processed. DOJ issued guidance in early 2017, which Cause of Action finds to not be consistent with the FOIA. It’s a pattern and practice claim, so the first hurdle will be for the plaintiff to get past a motion to dismiss and get standing for the district court to hear the issue. The plaintiff’s press release on the lawsuit can be found here.
