Hamdan v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, No. 13-55172 (9th Cir. 2015)
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Plaintiffs filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, seeking
information from federal agencies about federal investigations related to Plaintiff Naji Hamdan and any U.S. role in his detention and torture by U.A.E. officials. The court affirmed the district court’s rulings on the adequacy of the agencies’ searches or the invocation of the challenged exemptions because the FBI and the State Department conducted searches reasonably calculated to produce records responsive to plaintiffs’ request, and because the FBI and the DIA properly withheld some records under several exemptions to FOIA’s disclosure requirements. However, the court vacated the grant of summary judgment and remanded this
case to the district court for a segregability analysis because the district court did not make any findings as to whether there was non-exempt information in the withheld records that could reasonably be segregated and disclosed, and the court could not say on this record that the error was harmless.
Court Description: Freedom of Information Act. The panel affirmed in part, and vacated and remanded in part, the district court’s summary judgment in favor of several federal agencies in plaintiffs’ suit under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), arising from their request for information from a myriad of federal agencies about federal investigations related to Naji Hamdan and any U.S. role in his detention and torture by United Arab Emirates. The panel affirmed the district court’s rulings as to the adequacy of the agencies’ search and the application of FOIA exemptions. The panel held that the State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation complied with their obligations to search for records under FOIA. The panel also held that the government properly withheld records under FOIA Exemption 1 (which protects national security information), Exemption 3 (which protects records exempt from disclosure pursuant to a separate statute); and Exemption 7(E) (which protects some records compiled for law enforcement purposes). Specifically, the panel affirmed the district court’s holding that the Defense Intelligence Agency properly withheld records under Exemption 3 because those records were protected under 10 U.S.C. § 424. FOIA provides that any “reasonably segregable portion of a record shall be provided to any person requesting such record after deletion of the portions which are exempt under 4 HAMDAN V. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE this subsection.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b). The panel held that the district court erred by not making findings on the issue of segregability. As to all the records whose existence was not itself classified, the panel directed the district court to determine on remand whether there was any content that could be segregated from the exempt information and turned over to plaintiffs.
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