On May 3, 2017, Muslim Advocates filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This suit sought documents related to the government's border searches of electronic devices in the possession of individuals from one of ...
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On May 3, 2017, Muslim Advocates filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This suit sought documents related to the government's border searches of electronic devices in the possession of individuals from one of the seven nations targeted by
President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27, 2017 Executive Order (EO), known as the Muslim Ban, as well as individuals that Customs and Border Protection agents perceived to be Muslim, regardless of their country of origin. The plaintiff, a nonprofit organization, argued that such border searches "dramatically increased" after the EO was issued.
On May 18, the case was assigned to Judge Amy Berman, and reassigned to Judge Dabney L. Friedrich on Dec. 4, 2017.
Since the filing of the complaint, the parties submitted several status reports through November 2018. The defendants produced batches of requested non-exempt records periodically.
On March 6, 2019, the parties submitted a joint status report indicating that the defendant had completed its record disclosure to the plaintiff and the plaintiff had finished its review of the files. The status report indicated that the plaintiffs had some questions about withheld documents, but the status update said that the parties succeeded in working out their issues without the need of a court order.
The parties then turned to the allocation of attorney fees. On December 5, 2019, the plaintiffs submitted a stipulation of dismissal, and Judge Friedrich dismissed the case on the same day. The status reports leading into the stipulation of dismissal indicated that the parties were close to resolving all disputes over attorney fees and expected them to be solved by December 4; though there is no ECF indicating distribution of attorney fees on that date, the dismissal stipulation on December 5 makes it appear that they came to a private agreement on December 4.
The case is closed.
Virginia Weeks - 06/03/2017
Jamie Kessler - 08/14/2017
Virginia Weeks - 11/06/2018
Ellen Aldin - 06/22/2020
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