Court Rules That Forest Service Failed to Properly Respond to FOIA Request

A federal court recently held that the Forest Service conducted an insufficient review for documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and also failed to justify withholding certain of the responsive documents it did locate.  As the Court noted, “the FOIA provides the public with a broad right of access to federal agency records subject to nine specific exemptions.”  The FOIA’s purpose “is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.”

The court found that, while FOIA does not require an agency to search every record system or to demonstrate that no other potentially responsive documents might exist, it still must show “that it made a good faith effort to conduct a search for the requested records, using methods which can be reasonably expected to produce the information requested.”  In the case, the Forest Service failed to check with individuals who likely had responsive documents and failed to search offices which were involved in the decision at issue.  The court also found that the agency’s justification for withholding documents consisted of reciting the legal standard for withholding documents but failed to provide sufficient detail for the court to determine if that standard actually had been met.