Center for Popular Democracy v. IRS

We represented the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). CPD submitted a FOIA request to the IRS seeking records related to the IRS’s “Puerto Rico Act 22, Individual Investors Act” enforcement campaign. A year after CPD submitted its request, the IRS responded by stating that it had located 3,306 pages of responsive records and that it was withholding all 3,306 pages in their entirety pursuant to various FOIA exemptions. CPD filed an administrative appeal, explaining that the IRS had failed to segregate and release non-exempt materials, improperly relied on particular FOIA exemptions, and failed to adequately consider whether disclosure of the supposedly exempt material would harm an interest protected by the exemption. The IRS denied CPD’s appeal. We filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to compel the IRS to release any non-exempt documents. After we filed suit, the IRS reprocessed the records and produced them with far fewer redactions. CPD was satisfied with the production, and we settled our claim for attorney’s fees and stipulated to dismissal of the case.