From The Identity Project
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg has issued his first rulings inHasbrouck v. CBP, our lawsuit seeking information from and about DHS records of the travels of individual US citizens.
Judge Seeborg granted some of the government’s motions for summary judgment and some of ours, ordered US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to conduct further searches and disclose any non-exempt responsive records they find, and ordered the parties to confer on the remaining unresolved issues.
We’re still studying the order, which we received notice of late yesterday. But here are some key aspects of the ruling — including some issues of first impression for any Federal court — and some issues it raises:
1. Federal agencies can retroactively exempt themselves from access and other requirements of the Privacy Act.
Judge Seeborg held that regulations issued by DHS in 2010 to exempt Automated Targeting System (ATS) records and records of Privacy Act and FOIA processing could be used as the basis for withholding information that Mr. Hasbrouck first requested in 2007 and 2009.
Read more on Papers, Please!, because it gets worse. Thankfully, this case is not over and they will continue to fight. We need to spread the word about this ruling and figure out what we can to do help.