On May 2, 2017, the non-profit organization Muslim Advocates filed this suit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The suit aimed to shed light on the government's border searches of electronic devices in the possession of persons from the seven Muslim-majority countries covered by President Trump's Jan. 27 and Mar. 6 Executive Orders (Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen). Plaintiff additionally aimed to learn about the government's border searches of electronic devices in the possession of all persons -- including U.S. citizens -- whom U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents "perceived to be Muslim." Plaintiff contended that DHS had yet to make the requested records available. Plaintiff therefore filed this suit seeking injunctive and declaratory relief.
In the complaint, plaintiff argued that it had submitted its FOIA request to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Mar. 7, 2017. Specifically, plaintiff sought the following:
1. Records created on or after Jan. 24, 2017 related to CBP's search, review, retention, and dissemination of information located on or accessed through electronic devices in the possession of individuals who were encountered by CBP at the border (and the border's functional equivalents); and
2. Records created on or after Feb. 27, 2017 that pertain to the second Executive Order and are otherwise responsive to the first request.
On May 2, this case was assigned to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. Also on May 2, plaintiff filed notice that it believed this case should be marked related to
Knight First Amendment v. DHS.
On Aug. 4, Oct. 6, and Nov. 3, the parties filed joint status reports discussing the progress of the search and document turnover. On Nov. 28, the parties met for a status conference before Judge Chutkan, who ordered that the government, by Dec. 19, provide plaintiff with an estimate regarding the completion date of document production.
The next status report of Jan. 29, 2018, detailed the parties' discussions about search terms. Plaintiff reported that CBP had estimated it would finish production by Sept. 2018 and DHS had provided no estimate. Plaintiff sought an earlier production, but defendants asserted they needed this time to properly review documents before releasing them.
After a Feb. 21, 2018 status conference, Judge Chutkan ordered CBP to produce 275 pages per month. A May 14 order clarified that CBP is to process 500 email record pages per month and also 275 pages of incident-level reports per month. DHS is to process 775 email record and complaint pages per month. July and September status reports indicated the government's review and production were underway.
Production of documents and status reports continued January 22, 2019, when the case was stayed until Congress restored appropriations to the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The stay was lifted on February 27, 2019, and production of documents continued. The parties have been submitting status reports regularly. As of April 14, 2020, this case is ongoing.
Julie Aust - 12/03/2017
Ava Morgenstern - 05/05/2018
Virginia Weeks - 10/01/2018
Alex Moody - 04/14/2020
compress summary
