In opposing efforts to reopen Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) cases seeking Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, the Department of Justice is playing perfectly to type. Last week, the department told the D.C. Circuit that there was no reason to re-open a case in which it had previously said it had no e-mail. Justice’s lawyers argued that its prior statements to the court were literally true: It had no such e-mails at the time it conducted its prior searches.

 

As I previously wrote, the Supreme Court has consistently rejected the notion that private citizens can force the recovery of documents removed from agency recordkeeping systems through FOIA lawsuits. This precedent was established in 1980, in a case involving an effort to force the State Department to produce notes and tapes that Henry Kissinger took with him when he resigned as Secretary of State. The Court reasoned [Read More]