Justia U.S. D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

In 1985, Carl Oglesby filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, with federal agencies seeking information on Reinhard Gehlen. Gehlen was a former Nazi general through whom the United States engaged in clandestine espionage after World War II. In this appeal, Oglesby's daughter and her partner challenge the adequacy of the Army's and the CIA's justification for withholding certain information on national security grounds. The court affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the Army and CIA with respect to the Army’s transfer of documents to the National Archives, both agencies’ searches for responsive documents, and the CIA’s withholding of information under Exemptions 1 and 3. The court's remand is limited to issues arising from the Army’s release to plaintiff during the appeal of responsive but redacted Army documents that had been held by the National Archives. View "DiBacco v. United States Army" on Justia Law

The NSA requested investigative materials, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 500 et seq., that the SEC had gathered involving payments made to paramilitary groups in Colombia by a subsidiary of Chiquita. Chiquita requested that the Commission deny the Archive’s request, arguing that releasing the records at this point in time would deprive the company of a fair trial in pending multi-district litigation in Florida. The court construed Exemption 7(B) narrowly and according to its text, the same way the Commission did here: to apply when the release of documents would likely deprive a party of a fair trial, not merely complicate the discovery schedule. In this case, the Commission properly disposed of Chiquita’s arguments on the ground that the company could not show how disclosure would matter in the big picture and impact the fairness of a future trial. This is the proper legal standard under both the text of Exemption 7(B) and Washington Post Co. v. U.S. Dep't of Justice. Finally, the court concluded that the Commission reasonably applied Exemption 7(B) and concluded that disclosure of the records to the Archive will not “seriously interfere with the fairness” of the Florida proceedings. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court and vacated the injunction pending appeal. View "Chiquita Brands Int'l v. SEC" on Justia Law

Petitioners appealed to the Secretary of HUD after an ALJ found them liable for violations of governing programs administered by HUD. The Secretary upheld the ALJ's liability determinations but imposed higher penalty amounts. Determining that the court had jurisdiction, the court denied petitioners' petition for review, upholding the Secretary's finding of Section 8 violations where Mantua Gardens increased Section 8 tenants' rents without giving the tenants and HUD one year's notice of the proposed termination of a Housing Assistance Payment contract; the Secretary’s reversal of the ALJ’s $450,000 penalty, imposing instead the original amount sought by HUD of $1,260,000; the Secretary's determination that no request was made for Secretarial approval of a prepayment, and therefore no cancellation of the agreement occurred; and the Secretary's determination that HUD conducted an appropriate penalty analysis. Because the Secretary's conclusions are not arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion, the court denied the petition for review. View "Grier v. HUD" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, a federal prison inmate, filed suit alleging that the BOP failed to adequately respond to his requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 500 et seq., and that several policies adopted by the BOP violate the Constitution. The district court granted summary judgment for the BOP on the FOIA claims and dismissed the constitutional claims. The court concluded that because it cannot determine whether the BOP conducted an adequate search based upon the declarations in the record, the judgment of the district court on the Code 408 FOIA claim is vacated and the court remanded for further proceedings. The court held that sovereign immunity does not bar plaintiff’s claims for declaratory and injunctive relief against the BOP and the individual defendants in their official capacities; plaintiff exhausted all the administrative remedies “available” to him with respect to his claim that defendants unlawfully retained interest earned on money held in inmates’ deposit accounts; the court affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's claim that the prices charged for commissary items and telephone calls are “too high;” the court vacated the district court’s order insofar as it dismisses plaintiff’s claim that Code 334 is unconstitutional and remanded for further proceedings; and the court affirmed as to the remaining claims. View "DeBrew v. Atwood" on Justia Law

Prairie State challenges the Commission’s decision to sustain the Secretary’s citations against it for operating without approved, mine-specific plans for roof support and ventilation at Prairie State’s underground coal mine at Lively Grove in southern Illinois. Principally at issue was which standard the Commission should use when it reviews the Secretary’s citation of an operator for failure to follow an approved, mine-specific plan. The court assumed, without deciding, that Chevron governs the court's consideration of that question, as Prairie State failed to contest the Secretary’s assertion that it does. The court held that the Secretary’s judgments regarding the suitability of mine-specific safety plans are entitled to deference under the Mine Act, 30 U.S.C. 801 et seq., and reject the further claims of error. Accordingly, the court denied the petition for review. View "Prairie State Generating Com. v. Secretary of Labor" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, a federal prisoner, submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, to the EOUSA, seeking grand jury information for two criminal cases. The EOUSA invoked exemption 3 to justify its nondisclosure of the dates and times of day that the grand jury met to hear testimony and consider evidence in the cases. The court affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment for the EOUSA, holding that the dates and times of day the grand jury meets to consider a specific case are protected by exemption 3. View "Murphy v. EOUSA" on Justia Law

Title VI of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, Pub. L. No. 112-96, 126 Stat. 156, known as the Spectrum Act, authorizes the FCC to shift a portion of the licensed airwaves from over-the-air television broadcasters to mobile broadband providers. The Act directs the Commission to carry out the objective of repurposing spectrum through three interdependent initiatives: (i) a reverse auction to determine the prices at which broadcasters would voluntarily sell their spectrum rights; (ii) a reassignment of broadcasters who wish to retain their rights to new channels in a smaller band of spectrum; and (iii) a forward auction to sell the blocks of newly available spectrum to wireless providers, with the proceeds used to compensate broadcasters who voluntarily relinquished their spectrum rights and to pay the relocation expenses of broadcasters reassigned to new channels. Members of the television broadcast industry petitioned for review of the Commission's orders, arguing that the decisions announced in the orders conflict with the Act or are otherwise arbitrary and capricious. The court rejected petitioners’ contention at Chevron step one that the statute unambiguously forecloses the Commission’s use of the improved TVStudy program along with updated data inputs when applying OET-69 to determine a broadcaster’s coverage area and population served; the court rejected petitioners’ argument that the Commission’s decision to use TVStudy and updated inputs amounts to an unreasonable interpretation of the Act at Chevron step two; the court rejected petitioners' arbitrary-and-capricious arguments; in regards to petitioners' procedural challenge, any error in OET’s (rather than the Commission’s) issuing the Public Notice was harmless; and the court rejected petitioners' remaining arguments. Accordingly, the court denied the petitions for review. View "Nat'l Ass'n of Broadcasters v. FCC" on Justia Law

The Secretaries appealed the grant of summary judgment and issuance of a mandatory injunction to sell a certain amount of timber annually from federal land managed under the Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant Lands Act of 1937, 43 U.S.C. 1181a et seq. The court concluded that none of the plaintiff timber companies or timber organizations have demonstrated Article III standing. The declarations that the companies submitted before judgment fail to establish Article III standing for any plaintiff. None of the organizational plaintiffs identify individual injured members. The declarations are speculative with respect to the claimed threat to plaintiffs’ interests and conclusory or silent with respect to their claims of causation and redressibility. Accordingly, the court vacated the judgment and remanded with instructions to dismiss the complaint. View "Swanson Group Mfg. v. Jewell" on Justia Law

The Secretary issued regulations that effectively prohibit physicians who lease medical equipment to hospitals from referring their Medicare patients to these same hospitals for outpatient care involving that equipment. The association challenged the regulations as exceeding the Secretary's statutory authority and violating the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 500 et seq., and the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), 5 U.S.C. 601-612. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Secretary. Although one majority agrees with the district court that the statute is ambiguous as to the regulation of leases that charge on a per-use basis, a different majority concludes that the Secretary’s explanation for prohibiting these leases is unreasonable; the court unanimously concludes that the Secretary’s interpretation of the statute to apply to the physician-groups performing the procedures is reasonable, and that the Secretary complied with the RFA; and therefore, the court affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded to the district court with instructions to remand the regulation relating to leases charging by use to the Secretary for further proceedings. View "Council for Urological Interests v. Burwell" on Justia Law

The Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (Act), 15 U.S.C. 18a, added section 7A to the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, 15 U.S.C. 12 et seq., to establish notification and waiting requirements for large acquisitions and mergers. The principal purpose of the Act is to facilitate Government identification of mergers and acquisitions likely to violate federal antitrust laws before the proposed deals are consummated. In 2013, the FTC modified its reportable asset acquisition regulations to clarify that, even if patent holders retain limited manufacturing rights or co-rights, transfers of patent rights within the pharmaceutical industry constitute reportable asset acquisitions if all commercially significant rights are transferred. PhRMA filed suit challenging the FTC's Rule and the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the FTC. The court concluded that the Rule does not violate the plain terms of the Act; the court owes deference to the FTC because the contested rule embodies a permissible construction of the Act; and the Commission's action also survives review under the arbitrary and capricious standard. Because the FTC's action is supported by reasoned decisionmaking and PhRMA's claims are without merit, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "Pharmaceutical Research v. FTC" on Justia Law