On May 2, the District Court for the District of Columbia issued a Memorandum Opinion denying the DC Police department’s Motion to Dismiss and allowing the lawsuit to move forward. Plaintiff Amy Phillips is a public defender and claims that the DC Police department “unlawfully flags FOIA requests from people critical of MPD” and thus unlawfully delays and denies requests, in violation of Phillips’ and others’ First Amendment rights. Phillips claims the police department does this by having a “watchlist” of FOIA requests which is based on previous record requests and often results in the requests being denied. The DC Police Department must file an Answer to the Complaint by May 16th. Read more.
Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.
