Last year, Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) filed two Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests for a copy of the Secretary of Commerce’s final report to the President under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 regarding the national security impacts of the importation of automobiles. That report, which must be prepared prior to the imposition of tariffs, is required by law to be published in the Federal Register, subject only to redaction for classified and proprietary information. After Commerce failed to publish the report, and refused to release it under the FOIA, we filed a lawsuit to compel disclosure. Learn More
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Commerce Department Ignores Congressional Mandate to Release Auto Tariffs Report, Citing New OLC Opinion on Executive Privilege
January 22, 2020 by
NASA Adopts CoA Institute’s Recommendations to Improve Revised FOIA Regulations
October 15, 2019 by
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) finalized a rule last week to implement revised Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) regulations. That final rule incorporates important revisions proposed by Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) in a comment submitted to the agency in May 2019. CoA Institute’s comment recommended improvements to several aspects of NASA’s proposed regulations that were inconsistent with current statutory guidelines regarding fee reduction classifications and the proper scope of searches for agency records. CoA Institute also recommended that NASA add a provision to implement the “foreseeable harm” standard—a new statutory requirement that CoA Institute has been investigating government-wide. These changes are a small, but important, step towards more transparent government and proper administration of the FOIA. Learn More
White House Issues Executive Orders Curtailing Use of Guidance Documents to Bypass Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking and Imposing Public Disclosure Requirement
October 11, 2019 by
On October 9, 2019, the White House issued two executive orders designed to curtail the abuse of guidance documents by government agencies. Both orders address due process violations by agencies by requiring notice and an opportunity to be heard before action can be taken or liability imposed against alleged wrongdoers. Learn More
Cause of Action Sues Commerce Department for Failing to Release Section 232 Uranium Report
September 10, 2019 by
Washington, D.C. (Sept. 10, 2019) – Cause of Action Institute (CoA Institute) has stepped up its ongoing battle with the Department of Commerce (Commerce) by suing the agency for failing to respond to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking access to the agency’s final report to the President regarding its Section 232 investigation into the “Effect of Imports of Uranium on the National Security” and the Department of Defense’s response letter to that report. Learn More
Investigation Update: The VA continues to subject certain FOIA requests to “sensitive review,” but the agency is keeping records about the practice secret
August 9, 2019 by
Over the past year, Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) has been investigating the Department of Veterans Affairs for its continued politicization (here, here, and here) of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). That politicization takes the form of “sensitive review,” which refers generally to the practice of giving certain FOIA requests extra scrutiny. Sensitive review usually entails an additional layer of review or “consultation” with interested parties before potentially embarrassing or politically sensitive records are released to the public. At its best, it almost always causes delay. At its worst, it leads to intentionally inadequate searches, politicized document review, improper redaction, and incomplete disclosure. Learn More
The EPA bypassed public comment on its new FOIA regulations, which raises some important legal questions
August 8, 2019 by
The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has long struggled with the politicization and abuse of its Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) processes. Indeed, as Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) has repeatedly argued, the agency has a “terrible track record for anti-transparency behavior”—from the weaponization of fee waivers and the use of undisclosed “alias” e-mail accounts, to the failure to preserve text messages and the creation of special “awareness review” procedures for politically sensitive FOIA requests. Yet the EPA’s rather poor reputation plunged even further in late June 2019, when the agency published an unexpected direct final rule implementing various changes to its FOIA regulations. Learn More
The D-Link Systems’ Consent Order Explained
August 7, 2019 by
On Tuesday, August 6, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California entered a consent order between the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and D-Link Systems, Inc., a U.S. company that is a global leader in connectivity for home, small business, mid- to large-sized enterprise environments, and service providers, resolving an FTC lawsuit alleging that D-Link Systems’ security practices violated Section 5 of the FTC Act. The D-Link Systems order marks the close of the first ever litigated FTC action over the application of Section 5 to the security practices used for Internet of Things (“IoT”) devices. This result is good for D-Link Systems, and good for the FTC.