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Wynship W. Hillier v. Central Intelligence Agency, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, No. 19-5339 · judgment April 17, 2020


Certiorari denied · March 1, 2021
Pre-decision estimate: 0% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

  1. Shall summary judgment be awarded in favor of an agency in a suit under the Privacy Act to compel notice of the fact of the existence of records pertaining to a requester in a Privacy Act system of records on the basis of the agency's declaration stating that notice of records was withheld according to the agency's lower standard for granting access to identified records?

  2. Shall summary judgment be awarded in favor of a non-FBI agency against whom a reasonable claim of misapplication of 5 U.S.C. § 552(c) has been asserted with respect to a Privacy Act request for notice of the existence of records pertaining to a requester in a system of records containing classified records regarding terrorism, when the agency has not submitted a sealed affidavit either justifying its application of 5 U.S.C. § 552(c) or asserting that no records were withheld pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552(c)?

  3. May the Privacy Act systems of records supplied by a requester in a request for notice of the fact of the existence of records pertaining to him in those systems be only partially searched or even ignored entirely by the agency when responding to his request?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Wynship W. Hillier

For respondent
Brian H. Fletcher
Acting Solicitor General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Proceedings

  1. Apr 26 2021
    Rehearing DENIED.
  2. Apr 07 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/23/2021.
  3. Mar 26 2021
    Petition for Rehearing filed.
  4. Mar 01 2021
    Petition DENIED.
  5. Feb 10 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/26/2021.
  6. Feb 02 2021
    Waiver of right of respondents CIA, et al. to respond filed.
  7. Dec 21 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 10, 2021)