![]() Treating the 372 subjects as individual requests would have avoided the invocation of the 500-page policy, and would have radically changed the FBI’s response. The FBI chose to treat these distinct requests as one large request. Professor Seavey sought information pertaining to 372 “district subjects” in the Marequest. The court highlighted an additional nonsensical aspect of the FBI’s 500-page policy. The agency’s desire for administrative convenience is simply not a valid justification for telling Professor Seavey that she must wait decades for the documents she needs to complete her work.” “Under the 500-page policy, requestors must wait 1 year for every 6,000 potentially responsive documents, and those who request tens of thousands of documents must wait decades. “In the name of reducing its own administrative headaches, the FBI’s 500-page policy ensures that larger requests are subject to an interminable delay in being completed,” wrote the court. Judge Kessler found this argument unpersuasive. Essentially, the agency argued that anything more would result in large document requests such as Professor Seavey’s monopolizing its resources. The FBI argued that it developed the 500-page policy to ensure internal efficiency and fairness to all FOIA requestors. “In contrast, Professor Seavey asks that the court order the FBI to process 5,000 pages per month, which will result in completion of processing in less than 2 years.” “If the FBI’s request is granted, it will take just shy of 17 years to complete the processing of Professor Seavey’s request,” wrote the court. The law states that “unreasonable delays in disclosing non-exempt documents violate the intent and purposes of the FOIA.” The court further found that it has “a duty to prevent abuses.” The FBI filed a reply in which it argued that it should process the documents at a rate of 500 per month, pursuant to an internal policy relating to large FOIA document requests.ĭistrict Court Judge Gladys Kessler did the math and saw an immediate problem with the FBI’s position: it would result in a decades long wait for the records. In the motion, Professor Seavey sought an order that the FBI produce 5,000 records per month until the 151,500 responsive documents were processed. Ultimately, Professor Seavey filed a Motion for Summary Judgment, arguing that the FBI had violated FOIA by failing to make the statutorily required determination on the request. Two years of litigation ensued, with the FBI producing some of the records. The FBI failed to make a timely determination, and Professor Seavey filed suit on August 12, 2015. Such a determination required the FBI to gather and review the documents, determine and communicate the scope of the documents it intended to produce, and notify the requester of their right to appeal the withholding of any document. Pursuant to statute, this provided the agency 30 days to make a “determination” on the request. The FBI determined that unusual circumstances applied to the Marequest. One specific request, dated March 3, 2015, sought a “particularly large” amount of records. In the course of research for the film, Professor Seavey submitted a large number of FOIA requests to the FBI, mostly concerning the FBI’s infiltration of the anti-war movement in St. intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the movement against U.S. Professor Seavey was working on a feature length documentary detailing the role played by U.S. The request was made by Professor Nina Gilden Seavey, a documentary filmmaker and professor in the Department of History and the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. How to Survive Prison as a Sex OffenderĪ judge in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the FBI to greatly increase the speed at which it is producing documents responsive to a professor’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. ![]() ![]() Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |