UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA OLENA ZYNOVIEVA, Plaintiff, Civil Action No. 19-3445 (RDM) v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Defendant. MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Plaintiff Olena Zynovieva submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, to the U.S. Department of State (“the Department”), seeking records concerning her own prior visa applications. The Department withheld all but three of the records responsive to Plaintiff’s request under FOIA Exemption 3 and Section 222(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), which requires the Department to keep confidential records “pertaining to the issuance or refusal of visas,” 8 U.S.C. § 1202(f). In this action, Plaintiff challenges those withholdings, and the parties have cross-moved for summary judgment. Rather than justify its withholdings on a document-by-document basis, the Department issued a “no number, no list” response, in which it identifies the categories of visa-processing records that the Department generally maintains and attests that the withheld records all fall within those categories, but does not disclose the number or specific nature of each withheld record. This approach appears to be a novel one, and, at least on the present record, the Court is not satisfied that the Department’s refusal to describe the records at issue in greater detail was necessary to protect information exempt from disclosure. The Court thus concludes that the Department has not yet carried its burden to justify its withholdings under FOIA Exemption 3 and the INA. At 1 the same time, however, it appears likely that some or all of the records in question are protected by Exemption 3, and thus it would be premature to grant summary judgment to Plaintiff. The Court will, accordingly, DENY the Department’s motion for summary judgment, Dkt. 15, and will also DENY Plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment, Dkt. 16. I. BACKGROUND Plaintiff is a citizen of Ukraine and a resident of the United Arab Emirates. Dkt. 1 at 2 (Compl. ¶ 2). Acting through counsel, she submitted a FOIA request to the Department on August 13, 2019. Dkt. 15-2 at 1 (Def.’s SUMF ¶ 1). That request sought all information in the Department’s Consular Lookout and Support System (“CLASS”) database concerning herself, as well as all documents in the Department’s files that Plaintiff had submitted in connection with her past visa applications, from 2009 to the present. Id.; see also Dkt. 15-3 at 2–3 (Stein Decl. ¶ 4). According to the Department, the CLASS database “is used by the Department of State and other agencies to perform namechecks on visa and passport applicants to identify individuals who may be ineligible for issuance or require other special action.” Dkt. 15-1 at 8; Dkt. 15-2 at 1 (Def.’s SUMF ¶ 2). Having received no response to her request, Plaintiff filed this lawsuit on November 15, 2019. Dkt. 1. The Department responded to her FOIA request on March 12, 2020. Id. 15-2 at 2 (Def.’s SUMF ¶ 4). The Department produced three records in part, totaling eleven pages. Id. Those …
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