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Public Citizen v. Department of State

Department of State's "date-of-request cutoff" unreasonably restricted Freedom of Information Act responses to documents created before date of requester's letter.

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Argued November 13, 2001

When the State Department responds to Freedom of Information Act requests, it generally declines to search for documents produced after the date of the requester’s letter. Challenging this “date-of-request cutoff” policy, appellant claims that the Department promulgated it without notice and opportunity to comment as required by the Administrative Procedure Act, and that, in any event, the policy is unreasonable both generally and as applied to appellant’s particular request because it forces FOIA requesters to file multiple requests. We reject the former claim because the policy falls within the APA’s exemption for “rules of agency organization, procedure or practice.” Finding that the State Department has failed to substantiate its claim that an “administrative nightmare” would result were it unable to apply the date-of-request cut-off policy, however, we agree with appellant that the policy is unreasonable both generally and as applied to its FOIA request. Finally, we reject appellant’s additional claim that the Department improperly invoked FOIA’s national security exemption to withhold some otherwise responsive information.

I.

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