D.C. Circ. Court to Decide if White House is Log Cabin

 (Photo credit: tychay)

It's all so simple in the Star Trek future world in which James T. Kirk disclosed the contents of his Captain's log at the outset of each episode.

In contrast, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last week heard arguments in Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Secret Service (Case No. 1:12-cv-01562) in which the appeals court must decide whether to uphold a ruling last summer by United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Beryl A. Howell that granted the plaintiff conservative watchdog group access to White House visitor logs pursuant to its request under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") [5 U.S.C. sec. 552] (see "TUOL" post 8/18/11).

According to accounts on the respective Web sites of The National Law Journal and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the appellate court panel on Sept. 18 heard Department of Justice attorneys claim that the logs being sought were not Secret Service agency records created by the president's protectors subject to production under the FOIA, but rather, were records of the Office of the President, which are exempt under the Act.  DOJ attorneys also voiced concerns that the records contained confidential information, some of which had national security implications. For example, the Secret Service vets all visitors, so the records contain  background personal information, including visitors' Social Security Numbers and birthdates, and the records flag sensitive data, such as visits from prospective U.S. Supreme Court nominees.

Judge Howell, himself an appointee of President Barack Obama, agreed with Judicial Watch that the logs were under the Secret Service's control and subject to FOIA production and that it would be overreaching by the government to withhold all the data requested. Trying to allay the justices' concerns, the plaintiff's lawyers argued before the appellate panel that exemptions within the FOIA could shield sensitive material contained in the logs.

Media groups, including Bloomberg, Inc., National Public Radio and The Washington Post, as well as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, submitted amicus briefs backing Judicial Watch.  The watchdog group began its quest for the logs in 2009. The White House Web site (www.whitehouse.gov) has disclosed the names of roughly 2.5 million White House visitors since September 2009, in response to a voluntary initiative by the Obama Administration, but critics cite the one-and-a-half to two-month delay in the release of the data and the White House selective withholding of names it doesn't want published.

UPDATE: bin Laden Death Photos FOIA-Exempt

(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

In a 29-page Memorandum of Decision in Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense et al. (Docket No. 11-890-JEB), U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge James Boasberg yesterday granted the government's summary judgment motion barring the public release of video and images of the shooting and burial of Osama bin Laden.

The plaintiff sued the government last May 2, the day after President Obama announced the killing of the al-Qaeda leader, for the release of images associated with his death under the Freedom of Information Act [5 U.S.C. sec. 552] (see "TUOL" post 1/30/12). As reported by Legal Times (www.Legaltimes.typepad.com), the CIA withheld 52 documents in response to the FOIA request, arguing release of the volatile classified bin Laden records posed a national security risk.

Judge Boasberg ruled "the CIA's explanation of the threat to our national security that the release of these records could cause passes muster." Judicial Watch has filed a notice of appeal to the United States District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

UPDATE: White House Visitor Records Subject to FOIA Request, Court Rules

Image via WikipediaU.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Beryl A. Howell handed the Secret Service and the Obama Administration a setback this week, ruling that White House visitor logs are agency records subject to being produced under the Freedom of Information Act [5 U.S.C. sec. 552] unless shielded by one of the Act's exemptions.

The issue of public access to visitors lists has  plagued both the Bush and Obama White House occupancies (see "TUOL" posts 9/7/09, 7/23/09), but in Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Secret Service (Case No. 09-2312(BAH)), Judge Howell's 19-page Memorandum of Decision rejected the Secret Service argument that the records at issue belonged to the White House, not the agency, and therefore, were not subject to the FOIA.  Even if some of the records in question might involve national security issues, as the defendant argued, Judge Howell ruled it would be overreaching to withhold all the data requested by the plaintiff conservative watchdog group, the Politico Website reported.

Judicial Watch requested records for the period from January 2009, to September 2009, the point at which President Obama implemented a new policy allowing the release of the names of most visitors to the White House. Visitor records largely are maintained in two databases: WAVES (Workers and Visitors Entry System) and ARCS (Access Control Records System).

Although basically an "inside the Beltway" kerfuffle, the staff of "TUOL" awards a judicial independence gold start to Judge Howell, who was appointed to the bench by President Obama last year.