Over the last two weeks the government responded to our motion for in camera review or discovery by offering to process the attribution analysis for a third time, and they asked me to withdraw my motion. It felt like a stalling technique, to which I said no.
They then filed a response with largely procedural arguments, and with leave of the court I filed a reply.
Given that they offered to process the record again, I would expect that they have the upper hand. Such is life in FOIA litigation.
But at the least, we were able to get some things on the record and if the court denies our motion, we should be able to short-circuit any further delays and gamesmanship.
After a ton of hard work, I can confidently say their exemption claims are bullshit and we will eventually win. I think the arguments in our motion and reply have merit, so maybe the little guy will score a win over the DOJ.
It’s in the Judge’s hands now. If we lose, August is the next time we will get a production on the attribution analysis.
We’re also creeping towards a decision from the Georgia Supreme Court.
We need to substantially upgrade our FOIA regulations. We need citizen advocacy. Centralized processing for inter-agency requests. Accountability and enforcement. Right now it’s buried deep under NARA. And they lack any oversight or IG stature. Needs to be fixed.
Thanks for doing this.