CASE SUMMARY

On May 18, 2021, Fair Lines America Foundation (“FLAF”) filed a federal Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau. FLAF alleged the defendants failed to meet their fulfillment deadline for its FOIA request seeking all records of counting operations, summaries, tabulations, and underlying group quarters population data received in response to the Bureau’s 2020 Census Group Quarters Enumeration questionnaire. They sought a judicial declaration the defendants were in violation of FOIA, an order requiring the defendants to make a determination and expedite their search for all responsive records, and an injunction mandating the processing and production of all nonexempt records within 10 days of the court’s order.

  • On August 2, 2022, the district court granted summary judgment for the defendants on the grounds the records fell within FOIA’s exemption for materials “specifically exempted from disclosure by statute,” there statute here being 13 U.S.C. § 9(b), which prohibits the publication of any data provided pursuant to the Census Act by which an individual could be identified. The court accepted the Census Bureau's argument that the records at issue, while not capable of leading to the identification of any individuals on their own, could nevertheless contribute to some future series of events in which a third-party would be able to identify individuals.

CASE LIBRARY

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia - No. 1:21-cv-01361