UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ENGERGY POLICY ADVOCATES, Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 21-1411 (JDB) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Defendant. MEMORANDUM OPINION At issue in this case are two requests for records submitted by plaintiff Energy Policy Advocates (“EPA”) to the United States Department of the Interior (“Interior”) under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). The requests were submitted in 2021, and Interior conducted a search and produced responsive records—with numerous documents withheld or produced with redactions—in late 2021 and early 2022. Interior filed the present motion for summary judgment on both the adequacy of its search and its bases for withholding information. EPA opposes both. For the reasons set forth below, the Court will grant Interior summary judgment as to the adequacy of its searches and the propriety of its withholdings under FOIA Exemption 6 but will deny summary judgment as to Interior’s withholdings under Exemption 5. Background EPA submitted its first request to Interior on April 15, 2021, seeking certain “records of and/or associated with the Outlook account of Senior Counselor to the Secretary Elizabeth Klein” (“Outlook Request”). Apr. 15, 2021 FOIA Req. [ECF No. 26-2] at 1. Specifically, EPA requested: 1. Calendar Invitations: all calendar and/or meeting invitations sent to or from (including copying) Elizabeth Klein dated January 21, 2021 through the date you process this request, inclusive; and 2. Microsoft Teams: all logs of Microsoft Teams meetings sent to or from (including copying) Elizabeth Klein and involving one or more participants 1 with a non-@ios.doi.gov address dated January 1, 2021 through the date you process this request, inclusive. Id. In response to this request, Interior “searched Ms. Klein’s Microsoft Outlook and Calendar for all calendar and Microsoft Teams invitations” from January 1, 2021 to May 18, 2021. Decl. of Leah Fairman [ECF No. 25-4] (“Fairman Decl.”) ¶ 8. According to Interior, this search “would return any and all calendar requests or Microsoft Teams meeting invitations.” Id. EPA filed its second FOIA request on April 16, 2021 (“Correspondence Request”), which sought all electronic correspondence, whether email, text, SMS, etc. . . . and any accompanying information, including also any attachments, a) sent to or from or copying Senior Counselor to the Secretary Elizabeth Klein, b) at any time from January 1, 2021 through April 15, 2021, inclusive, that c) is to, from or copies Special Assistant to the President David Hayes. See Apr. 16, 2021 FOIA Req. [ECF No. 26-3] at 1. In response to this request, Interior “searched Ms. Klein’s SharePoint, Desktop Outlook, Calendar, and Desktop OneDrive for potentially responsive records using the search term David Hayes” from January 1, 2021 to April 15, 2021. Fairman Decl. ¶ 9. Klein also “searched both her personal and work cell phones for any texts or SMS between her and Mr. Hayes” during the same time frame. Id. Thus, according to Interior, it has conducted searches responsive to both the Outlook Request and the Correspondence Request covering any materials that would be relevant and …
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals