Yagman v. Pompeo, No. 15-55442 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against defendants under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, seeking records identifying CIA personnel or affiliates that have engaged in torture. The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal of the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, holding that, although the FOIA request failed to reasonably describe the records sought, this failure bears on the merits of plaintiff's claim rather than the district court's subject matter jurisdiction. In this case, the district court erred by concluding that plaintiff's request constituted a question rather than a request for records; plaintiff cannot compel defendants to disclose documents on the basis of his vague request; but, ultimately, any failure to exhaust did not bear on the district court's subject matter jurisdiction. The panel remanded for further proceedings.
Court Description: Freedom of Information Act. The panel reversed the district court’s dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, based on plaintiff’s failure to exhaust administrative remedies, of an action against the Central Intelligence Agency and its director under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), seeking records identifying CIA personnel or affiliates that engaged in torture; and remanded for further proceedings. The panel held that federal agencies have a duty to construe FOIA records requests liberally, and further held that the district court erred in concluding that plaintiff’s request constituted a question rather than a request for records. The panel also held that the flaw with plaintiff’s FOIA request was its vagueness, and defendants could not know what records would be responsive. The panel held that the requirement in 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(3) that a person submitting a FOIA request “reasonably” what he or she seeks is properly viewed as an ingredient of the claim for relief, rather than a question of subject matter jurisdiction. The panel remanded to the district court with instructions to allow plaintiff to reframe his request for documents in light of the panel’s holding and the CIA’s repeated offers to assist him in formulating a reasonably specific request. YAGMAN V. POMPEO 3
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