Animal Legal Defense Fund v. US Department of Agriculture, No. 18-16327 (9th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseThe term "individual" as used in the Freedom of Information Act's expedited processing provisions does not include an animal as well as a human being. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment for the USDA in an action brought by the ALDF under FOIA. Determining that the district court had jurisdiction to review the FOIA suit, the panel held that ALDF's action was not moot where ALDF asserted a pattern or practice FOIA claim alleging that the agency's policy or practice would impair ALDF's lawful access to information in the center. The panel also held that, where, as here, "individual" is used as a noun with no corresponding group or category, its plain meaning is "human being." Therefore, the panel rejected ALDF's assertion that the term "individual" in these circumstances included animals.
Court Description: Freedom of Information Act. The panel affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its sub- agency, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, in a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) action brought by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (“ALDF”). The ALDF filed a complaint challenging the agency’s practice of denying requests for expedited processing of Animal Welfare Act-related FOIA requests. ALDF sought a declaration that the term “individual” in 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(E)(v)(I) includes an animal. The panel held that the district court had jurisdiction to review the FOIA suit. Specifically, the panel held that ALDF’s suit was not moot because ALDF asserted a “pattern or practice” FOIA claim alleging that the agency’s policy or practice would impede ALDF’s lawful access to information in the future. The panel further held that FOIA’s jurisdiction- stripping provision did not divest the district court of jurisdiction. The panel held that where, as here, a plaintiff asserted a “pattern or practice” claim that satisfied the three- pronged test of Hajro v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs., 811 F.3d 1086, 1104-06 (9th Cir. 2016), 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(E)(iv) did not bar the plaintiff’s action. ALDF V. USDA 3 Interpreting the word “individual,” as used in 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(E)(v)(I), the panel held that, where, as here, “individual” is used as a noun with no corresponding group or category, its plain meaning is “human being.” The panel rejected ALDF’s assertion that the term “individual” in this context also included animals.
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