NEWS RELEASE
May 24, 2016
Knight FOI Fund contributes to U.S. Circuit Court ruling granting “Educational Requester” status to students
Knight Foundation NFOIC FOI Fund helps finance plaintiff’s appeal in far-reaching FOIA case
A United States Circuit Court in the District of Columbia ruled last week that “Educational Requester” status in federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) petitions will now apply to all students seeking government information for educational purposes. The decision came on an appeal by plaintiff Kathryn Sack, a University of Virginia graduate student after losing in District Court. People who petition under an educational requester category are not subject to the same fees and restrictions applied to other FOIA requesters and entitled to reduce fee costs or no costs.
In 2011, Ms. Sack was working on her dissertation on polygraph bias. She filed multiple FOIA requests to Department of Defense agencies. Denied information from the National Security Agency (NSA), she sued the agency and the DoD.
Public records petitioners fall into a special fee category to determine how much time and which services will be provided by the agency before fees are incurred by the petitioner. Ms. Sack stated she was conducting the request for educational purposes, a requirement to be considered a representative of an educational organization. She also presented a document from her academic advisor confirming the work was for her dissertation and she was representing the university. The NSA determined her request fell into the “All Others” category and did not meet the special fee category. Because she refused to pay, the agency denied her request. She sue the NSA and DoD, and on December 9, 2013, U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins sided with the government and upheld the NSA denial.
Ms. Sack then appealed the district court’s decision. On, May 20th, 2016, Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s ruling for a unanimous three-judge panel found Ms. Sack did qualify for Educational Requester status. The court also ruled that any student making a federal FOIA request qualifies as “Educational Requester” if their petition is for educational purposes greatly expanding the educational requester classification.
“This is a huge decision,” said Kel McClanahan, Ms. Slack’s attorney. “It’s the first circuit ruling anywhere on whether students are educational requesters, and now they will be treated the same as professors according to the D.C. Circuit.”
“There are so many cases where public records petitioners halted their efforts to pursue their request due to the prohibitive costs they knew they would incur –and would not be able to afford,” said Mal Leary, President of the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) whose organization provided funds to support the appeal. “It’s also a tactic used by public institutions to quash freedom of information petitions and appeals,” he added.
Through support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to NFOIC, the Knight FOI Fund exists to offer financial support in open government lawsuits and assist the pursuit of important FOI cases by helping to defray upfront costs such as filing fees, depositions, court costs and other expenses associated with legal actions. Since it began in January 2010, the Knight FOI Fund has assisted NFOIC member organizations, their allies and other litigants with 38 grant awards in FOI or access cases.
As for Ms. Sack’s information request, the Circuit Court has instructed the NSA to begin a new search, without limits on time, to determine if it does maintain records covered under her FOIA petition.
For the opinion:
Sack v. DoD, No. 14-5039 (D.C. Cir. May 20, 2016)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10744428196466649678
Background:
Sack v. DoJ, 65 F. Supp. 3d 29 (D. D.C. 2014)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=717798698012637770
Sack v. CIA, 53 F. Supp. 3d 154 (D. D.C. 2014)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8289823784051548499
Sack v CIA, 49 F. Supp. 3d 15 (D. D.C. 2014)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10813302280634266016
Sack v DoD, 6 F. Supp. 3d 78 (D. D.C. 2013)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=11687379180991786553
Nat’l Sec. Counselers v CIA, 931 F. Supp. 2d 77 (D. D.C. 2013)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14678955939802098690