MEMORANDUM OPINION
Michael Jordan Rollins died in Taiwan on September 17, 2009. Seeking to learn more about the circumstances of his death, his mother, Plaintiff Delores Ann Rollins, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the United States Department of State. After waiting many months and receiving no response, Rollins filed this suit to compel the agency to produce relevant records. State. thereafter produced over 150 records in full and several dozen more with redactions. It now moves for summary judgment on the ground that it has complied with its obligations under FOIA. Plaintiff cross-moves for summary judgment, challenging the agency’s response in two facets: she argues that its search for records was inadequate and that it improperly withheld portions of certain documents. Having now reviewed the six remaining contested documents in camera, as well as the parties’ briefings and declarations, the Court concludes that both the search and the withholdings were appropriate. It will, accordingly, grant Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment and deny Plaintiffs.
I. Background
On October 19, 2012, Plaintiff submitted a FOIA request to the United States Department of State, seeking records related to the death of her son, Michael Jordan Rollins, who had died in Taiwan three years earlier. See Compl., ¶ 14. Although the State Department acknowledged receipt of the request on November 5, 2012, id., ¶ 15, more than ten months later it had yet to produce responsive records or take final action with respect to Rollins’s request. Id., ¶ 16. As a result, she filed this suit on September 23, 2013.
Several months later, on January 10, February 7, and February 28, 2014, State produced responsive records to Plaintiff.
See
Def. Mot., Att. 1 (Declaration of John F. Hackett), Exhs. 4-6 (Letters from Sheryl Walter, Office of Information Programs •and Services, Department of State, to Delores Ann Rollins). The final letter, dated February 28, stated that the Department had finished processing the request.
See
Hackett Deck, Exh. 6. In total, State located 195 responsive documents, 158 of which were produced in their entirety and 37 of which were produced with redactions.
Both parties now move for summary judgment. While the adequacy of the Department’s search remains contested, the parties have narrowed their dispute on withholdings to portions of only six responsive documents. See PL Mot. and Opp. at 2. To aid in its review, the Court ordered State to provide these for in camera review. See September 18, 2014, Minute Order. The Court has now examined the redactions along with the Department’s justifications.
II. Legal Standard
Summary judgment maybe granted if “the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a);
see also Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., ATI
U.S. 242, 247-48,
FOIA cases typically and appropriately are decided on motions for summary judgment.
See Brayton v. Office of U.S. Trade Rep.,
III. Analysis
Congress enacted FOIA in order to “pierce the veil of administrative secrecy and to open agency action to the light of public scrutiny.”
Dep’t of Air Force v. Rose,
As noted previously, there are two is- ■ sues this Court must decide: first, whether State conducted an adequate search for records, and second, whether it properly withheld portions of six of the responsive documents. The Court will address each issue in turn.
A. Adequacy of the Search
“An agency fulfills its obligations under FOIA if it can demonstrate beyond material doubt that its search was ‘reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents.’ ”
Valencia-Lucena v. Coast Guard,
To establish the sufficiency of its search here, the State Department submitted two declarations from John F. Hackett, its Acting Director of the Office of Information Programs and Services and the official “immediately responsible” for responding to FOIA requests. See Hackett Decl.,- ¶ 1; Def. Reply, Att. 1 (Second Declaration of John F. Hackett), ¶ 1. The first declaration narrates, in considerable detail, the steps State took to locate responsive records. For instance, the Department evaluated the request and determined that four “components” — the Central Foreign Policy Records, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the Office of Overseas Citizens Services, and the American Institute in Taiwan — were the only ones reasonably likely to possess responsive records. See Hack-ett Deck, ¶ 11. Hackett then describes how each of those offices maintains records and the search terms and methods that were used.
Plaintiff nevertheless challenges the adequacy of the search because it failed to turn up certain records referenced in the documents she did receive.
See
PI. Mot. and Opp. at 5-7. Specifically, State turned over a postal receipt for a mailing, which indicated that the mailing included documents and a CD.
Id.
at 5. According to Plaintiff, these items were “important investigation records pertaining to the death of [her] son,” but the agency has not produced them to her.
Id.
at 6. Plaintiff also
In general, however, identifying a handful of documents that an agency failed to uncover does not, in itself, demonstrate that a search was inadequate..
See Boyd v. Criminal Div. of Dep’t of Justice,
An agency’s non-production of certain documents will raise questions about its search only where documents that are produced or information of which the agency is aware provide
clear leads
to locating the missing documents. Such leads may indicate, for example, other offices that should have been searched, additional search terms that should have been used, or records custodians who should have been consulted. The cases Plaintiff cites involve precisely these sorts of situations. For instance, in
Campbell v. Department of Justice,
Perhaps the most helpful case for Plaintiffs position is
Center for National Security Studies v. Department of Justice,
These cases are all clearly distinguishable on their facts. To begin with, a fair number of documents (195) has béen turned over to Rollins. Her only concern is that she did not receive a handful of records referenced in those produced. Yet she does not suggest that the disclosed documents provide any leads to other offices, databases, or files that should have been searched, or even to additional search terms or methods the agency should have used. There is also no evidence that State has non-public information that should have prompted it to search in additional locations, use additional search terms, or interview particular officials. Finally, Rollins offers no evidence that the referenced documents still exist, and her suggestion to the contrary is purely speculative.
The much closer parallel is thus this Circuit’s decision in
Iturmlde.
In light of the search that State conducted, which was reasonably calculated to locate all responsive records, the Court concludes that it fulfilled its obligation under FOIA. Summary judgment on this issue is thus warranted.
B. The State Department’s, Withhold-ings
Agencies must provide responsive records unless they fall into one of nine categories of exempt information.
See
5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(l)-(9). If the government withholds records, it bears the burden of demonstrating that at least one exemption applies.
Vaughn v. Rosen,
The issue here is whether State properly withheld portions of six contested documents under FOIA Exemptions 5 and 6 and whether it could have segregated additional non-exempt material for production. The Court will begin by evaluating the
1. Exemption 5
FOIA Exemption 5 applies to “inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5). In other words, Exemption 5 permits an agency to withhold “those documents, and only those documents, normally privileged in the civil discovery context.”
NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co.,
The first of those privileges — deliberative-process — permits the “withholding of all papers which reflect the agency’s group thinking in the process of working out its policy and determining what its law shall be.”
Sears, Roebuck,
The second privilege — attorney-client— extends to confidential communications from clients to their attorneys, as well as communications from attorneys to their clients containing confidential information supplied by the client.
See Tax Analysts v. IRS,
On the basis of State’s declarations and its own
in camera
review of the disputed documents, the Court concludes that the agency properly withheld the redacted portions under Exemption 5. All of the redacted e-mail exchanges clearly fall into one of two categories: 1) emails among agency personnel deliberating about the agency’s authority to undertake certain actions and discussing what next steps to take in regard to Michael Jordan Rollins’s death, and 2) e-mails among agency attorneys and staff made for the purpose of securing or providing legal advice about the agency’s authority.
See
Hackett Deck,
2. Exemption 6
The only contested information withheld under Exemption 6 is the name of a third party on a cover memo that transmitted the reports of two deaths abroad — that of Michael Jordan Rollins and that of the third party. In its declaration, the Department states that the information is properly withheld both because it is not responsive to Plaintiffs request and because it meets the requirements of Exemption 6.
See
Hackett Deck, ¶¶ 36-37; Second Hackett Deck, ¶¶ 15-16. The Court agrees on both fronts. First, State attested in its declaration that the two deaths were unrelated,
see
Hackett Deck, ¶ 37; Second Hackett Deck, ¶ 16, and Plaintiff does not provide any evidence to rebut this' statement.
See Larson,
Even if that were not the case, the information is also properly withheld under Exemption 6. This exemption protects from disclosure “personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion ’ of personal privacy.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6). To withhold information under the exemption, three criteria must be satisfied. First, the information must be contained within “personnel and medical files and similar files.” Second, the disclosure of information must “constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” Finally, if the first two requirements are met, the privacy interest must outweigh the public interest in disclosure.
See
5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6);
see also Armstrong v. Exec. Office of the President,
The information withheld in this case clearly satisfies the “similar files” requirement. In
Department of State v. Washington Post Co.,
Disclosing the third party’s name here would also “constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” For information to be withheld under Exemption 6, the disclosure of information must com
That balance here ultimately tips in favor of privacy. The only valid public interest in the FOIA context is one that serves FOIA’s core purpose of shedding light on an agency’s performance of its statutory duties.
See Reporters Comm.,
3. Segregability
The last issue that the Court must address is segregability. FOIA requires that “[a]ny reasonably segregable portion of a record ... be provided to any person requesting such record after deletion of the portions which are exempt.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b). Accordingly, “non-exempt portions of a document must be disclosed unless they are inextricably intertwined with exempt portions.”
Mead Data Central, Inc., v. Dep’t of Air Force,
IV. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, the Court will grant Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment and will deny Plaintiffs Motion. A contemporaneous Order will so state.
