Sara Discepolo v. Department of Justice

In all Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) cases, the federal courts apply a deferential “presumption of good faith” to agency declarations and forego discovery unless the requestor can show “bad faith” by the agency.

1. Are the courts violating the FOIA and its mandate to conduct de novo review by applying the presumption in cases which have nothing to do with national security?

2. Do the courts have any power to deny FOIA requestors the same benefits under the Federal Rules that other civil litigants enjoy, including the right to pre-trial discovery? The Petitioner presented countervailing evidence of overlooked materials that the agency failed to address in its declarations. Despite this, the lower court granted summary judgment to the agency and the court of appeals summarily affirmed.

3. Did the lower court’s deference to the agency via the presumption cause it to adopt a sham interpretation of the requests used by the agency to circumvent Greentree and ignore the agency’s exclusion of court records from its searches prohibited by Tax Analysts and McGehee?

4. Did the lower court conduct a trial by affidavit on the agency’s summary judgment motions and did the court of appeals clearly misapprehend summary judgment law in light of binding Supreme Court precedent?