Day v. United States Department of State


UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA _________________________________________ ) ROGER CHARLES DAY, JR., ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Civil Action No. 17-1418 (EGS) ) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, ) ) Defendant. ) _________________________________________ ) MEMORANDUM OPINION Roger Charles Day, Jr. (“plaintiff”), brings this action under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), see 5 U.S.C. § 552, against the United States Department of State (“State Department” or “defendant”). This matter is before the Court on defendant’s motion for summary judgment (ECF No. 34)1 and plaintiff’s motion to amend his complaint (ECF No. 41-1 at 6-13). For the reasons discussed below, the Court will grant the former and deny the latter. I. BACKGROUND Plaintiff alleges that he was “imprisoned in Mexican Federal Prisons at the behest of the United States” where he was subjected to “physical[] torture[] by Mexican officials with the full knowledge and upon the orders of U.S. officials” in the months preceding his extradition to the United States in December 2010. Compl. (ECF No. 1) ¶ 3; see Def.’s Reformatted Statement of 1 By minute order on April 24, 2019, the Court granted Defendant’s Motion for Leave to File Defendant’s Corrected Motion for Summary Judgment, ECF No. 33. The Clerk of Court terminated defendant’s original summary judgment motion, ECF No. 31, and docketed the corrected motion, ECF No. 34, in a separate docket entry. 1 Material Facts As To Which There Is No Genuine Issue (ECF No. 39-1, “State SMF”). This civil action pertains to plaintiff’s August 9, 2013, FOIA request to the State Department, Case Control Number P-2013-1467, for information about himself. State SMF ¶¶ 1-2; see Compl. ¶¶ 2-3; Def.’s Corrected Mem. of P. & A. in Support of Defs.’ Mot. for Summ. J. (ECF No. 34, “Def.’s Mem.”), Decl. of Eric F. Stein (ECF No. 34-1, “Stein Decl.”), Ex. 2 at 1. In relevant part, the request states: This request should be directed to records specifically but not limited to, the US Embassy in Mexico between the years 2008 and 2011. The Records of Vice Counsel David Haskett working at the same embassy in 2010. As well as all documents [and] communications between the US Embassy and the United Mexican States regarding Roger Charles Day[,] Jr. and his torture and transfer to Villa Aldama prison in Veracruz[,] Mexico on August 12, 2009[.] Records from the OCS of the Bureau of Consular Affairs CA and Office of Legal Advisor of the D.O.S. and Office of Law Enforcement and Intelligence (L/LEI) with D.O.S. Stein Decl., Ex. 2 at 2. The Office of Information Programs and Services (“IPS”) is responsible for responding to FOIA requests for State Department records. Id. ¶¶ 1-2. IPS staff “evaluates [each] request to determine which offices, overseas posts, or other records systems . . . may reasonably be expected to contain the records requested.” Id. ¶ 15. Staff bases its determination “on the description of the records requested and a familiarity with the holdings of the [State] Department’s records systems, ...

Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals