Louise Trauma Ctr. v. USCIS (D. Md.) -- ruling that plaintiff was eligible for attorney’s fees and costs, which the government did not dispute, and that plaintiff also was entitled to an award even though the relevant factors were equally balanced for and against plaintiff; reducing amount of plaintiff’s requested fees by 61 percent because plaintiff’s hourly rate ($620/hr.) and the number of hours billed (88) were “unreasonable.”

Kennedy Human Rights v. ICE (W.D.N.Y.) -- revisiting its order requiring ICE to produce responsive records and a Vaughn Index to plaintiff on a monthly basis and granting government’s motion to use a sample Vaughn Index representing four percent of withheld records due to the “voluminous production” (approximately 17-21k pages).

Tower v. U.S. Customs & Border Prot. (D.D.C.) -- concluding that CPB improperly relied on Exemption 6 in refusing to confirm or deny the existence of communications sent or received by a named employee (who also was an employees’ union president) that mentioned plaintiff, an agency employee and former union member; reasoning that subject’s employment status and “vocal” union activities were already publicly disclosed, and that his “quite weak” private interests were outweighed by public interest in understanding how CBP interacts with its employees’ union.

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