Mullane v. DOJ (1st Cir.) — affirming district court’s decision that DOJ performed adequate search for records concerning its termination of plaintiff as a law student intern in 2018.

Holmes-Hamilton v. FBI (D.D.C.) — in a case involving multiple requests from survivors of three American vacationers who mysteriously died at a Dominican Republic resort, granting the FBI’s motion for summary judgment and upholding its withholding of toxicology reports, and other related records, under Exemption 7(E), which protects against the disclosure of law enforcement techniques and procedures; rejecting the FBI’s appeal to Exemption 7(D) because Dominican law enforcement authorities were not a “confidential source” and their collaboration with the FBI was never a secret; also concluding the FBI satisfied the foreseeable-harm standard and FOIA’s segregability requirement.

Judicial Watch, Inc. v. HHS (D.D.C.) — in a case concerning a request for the identity of two NIH employees involved with a research grant involving the use of human fetal tissue, granting HHS’s motion for summary judgment and upholding its use of Exemption 6 given the “sensitivity” and controversy of research into fetal tissue; noting also that the requester failed to articulate a public interest sufficient to outweigh the substantial privacy interests at stake because the identities of these employees would not shed light on official agency activities; otherwise concluding the agency satisfied the foreseeable-harm standard and rejecting the requester’s motion for limited discovery.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.