Batton v. Evers

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding that the agency's presumption of legitimacy “does not relieve the withholding agency of its burden of proving that the factual information sought falls within the statutory exemption asserted”
• explaining that while a claimant may assert that other documents exist that were not located in the agency’s search, a court “must decide only whether the search was adequate”
• “[A]gency affidavits are generally accorded a ‘presumption of legitimacy’ unless there is evidence that the agency handled the FOIA request in bad faith.” (citation omitted)
• an agency’s declaration establishing that a search was adequate is entitled to a presumption of legitimacy.
• “A FOIA plaintiff may not assert a claim against an individual federal official; the proper defendant is the agency.”
• “[W]hile we assume that the IRS is telling the truth in its affidavits, its conclusory ‘say so’ does not, alone, carry its burden of establishing an exemption.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).