Ezeah v. Executive Office for United States Attorneys

Summary

The District Court for the District of Columbia denies Ken Ezeah’s motion for reconsideration and grants summary judgment in full to the Executive Office for United States Attorneys in a Freedom of Information Act case. The court holds that the agency’s search was adequate and that the supplemental declaration corrected the record by identifying the two-item FOIA request actually submitted to EOUSA. The court concludes that the agency located no responsive records and that the plaintiff’s speculation regarding archived emails did not justify reconsideration.

Holdings

1. Reconsideration was unwarranted because Ezeah showed neither clear error nor a sufficient basis to question the adequacy of EOUSA's search; his speculation that records might exist on unconfirmed servers did not satisfy the standard for reconsideration.
2. EOUSA's search was adequate as to the two categories of communications in Ezeah's actual FOIA request.
3. EOUSA was entitled to full summary judgment because the actual FOIA request contained only the two items for which the agency's search was adequate.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Ezeah established grounds for reconsideration of the court's prior interlocutory grant of partial summary judgment to EOUSA.
2. Whether EOUSA demonstrated that it conducted an adequate FOIA search for the two categories of communications in the actual request.
3. Whether the corrected record warranted granting summary judgment to EOUSA in full.

Disposition

other