FOIA Expedited Review Has Test |
| In the first appeals court decision to
interpret expedited review provisions in the amended federal Freedom of Information Act, a
three-judge panel in Washington, DC, refused July 13 to grant expedited review to FOI
requests by Mohamed Al Fayed and Punch Limited, the satirical British periodical which he
owns. The court made a ruling favoring some FOI requesters who need information right away: Expedited review questions may be decided anew by a court which does not have to defer to underlying decisions of federal agencies. The court agreed with a lower court and with the Department of Justice that Al Fayed was not entitled to priority placement for processing of his FOI requests for information on a fraud scheme relating to fictitious documents about the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al Fayed, Mohamed’s son, killed with Diana in 1997. It made that decision evaluating the facts of the case on its own, and rejected government arguments that the court should only determine if agency decisions to deny expedited review were reasonable. Journalists and others are able to take advantage of the provisions for expedited review if they are "information disseminators" with an "urgency to inform the public" about "actual or alleged" government activity. Although it said it would decide standards for expedited review "another day," the court listed some considerations for determining if an "information disseminator" is entitled to priority processing: "whether the request concerns a matter of current exigency to the American public," "whether the consequences of delaying a response would compromise a significant recognized interest" and "whether the request concerns federal government activity." - from News Media Update |
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