Freedom of the Press Foundation v. United States Department of Justice

ORDER RE CROSS MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Re: Dkt. Nos. 30,

Pending before the Court are the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment. Dkt. Nos. 30, 37. For the reasons articulated below, the Court GRANTS Defendant’s motion for summary judgment.and DENIES Plaintiffs crpss-motion.

*993 I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Freedom of the Press Foundation filed this action on July 30, 2015, seeking an injunction to compel Defendant DOJ to disclose records requested under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). Plaintiff submitted a FOIA request on March 10, 2015, seeking records related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (“FBI”) procedures for issuing national security letters (“NSLs”) to obtain information regarding any member of the media from January 2009 to the present. Dkt. No. 1. The FBI is empowered to issue NSLs to obtain “subscriber information and toll billing records information, or electronic communication transactional records” from third-party wire or electronic communication providers if such information is “relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.” 18 U.S.C. §§ 2709 (a)-(b).…