Muslims Groups Lose FOIA Request, But Court Complains FBI Lied To It

In 2006, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request on behalf of several Muslim-American groups and mosques in southern California in order to obtain information on reported government monitoring of religious institutions. (See prior posting.) The request made its way to court, and according to an opinion issued yesterday by a California federal judge, the government, for national security reasons, provided false and misleading information to the court regarding the documents that it had found in seeking to respond to the FOIA request.  In Islamic Shura Council of Southern California v. Federal Bureau of Investigation, (CD CA, April 27, 2011), the court chastised the government, saying:

The Government’s duty of honesty to the Court can never be excused, no matter what the circumstance. The Court is charged with the humbling task of defending the Constitution and ensuring that the Government does not falsely accuse people, needlessly invade their privacy or wrongfully deprive them of their liberty. The Court simply cannot perform this important task if the Government lies to it. Deception perverts justice. Truth always promotes it.

Nevertheless, the court concluded that the government need not provide any additional records to plaintiffs because revealing even the number and nature of the relevant documents could reasonably be expected to compromise national security. AP and Main Justice both reported on the decision.