Cunningham v. U.S. Dep't of Justice
| Decision Date | 16 April 2014 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 13–1115 RMC |
| Citation | 40 F.Supp.3d 71 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Columbia |
| Parties | Benjamin Cunningham, Plaintiff, v. U.S. Department of Justice, Defendant. |
Benjamin Cunningham, Bronx, NY, pro se.
Peter Rolf Maier, U.S. Attorney's Office, Washington, DC, for Defendant.
Benjamin Cunningham, who is a serial pro se litigant in this Court, complains of alleged violations of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. §§ 552 et seq. He has filed a slew of motions, see Dkt. Nos. 3–7, 9–11, 14–15, 19, 29, and 32, and seeks the following: summary judgment; judicial notice of various documents; permission to file on the record police officers' private information; compulsory production of certain documents; impeachment of various federal officials and judges; including this Court, due to claimed human rights violations, enjoinment in an unrelated foreclosure proceeding; and sanctions against defense counsel for perceived wrongdoing. For the reasons discussed below, the Court will dismiss this case and deny the motions as moot.
Over the past five years, Mr. Cunningham has filed multiple lawsuits in this Court and in other jurisdictions concerning an incident in 2005 during which Deputy Marshals of the U.S. Marshals Service allegedly entered and searched Mr. Cunningham's New York City residence pursuant to a search warrant. All of his suits have been dismissed.1
On July 22, 2013, Mr. Cunningham filed yet another suit. See Compl. [Dkt. 1]. The Complaint, which is difficult to decipher, appears to accuse a raft of agencies and individual federal officials of violating FOIA. Nonetheless, Mr. Cunningham underscores that he is suing only the Department of Justice (DOJ).2 Id. at 13 ().4 He seeks under FOIA the “disclosure [and] release of agency records regarding a North Carolina State's [r]eliable [c]onfidential [i]nformant being improperly withheld,” id. at 8, and challenges the responses he received to the four FOIA Requests that he sent to EOUSA, FBI, the Marshals Service, and OJP/OVC.5
The four FOIA Requests that Mr. Cunningham sent to EOUSA, FBI, the Marshals Service, and OJP/OVC varied to some degree. For instance, one of the Requests consisted of a single page while another included seemingly every document Mr. Cunningham has amassed concerning the 2005 search of his home. Cf. Def. Mot. for Summ. J. (MSJ) [Dkt. 21], Ex. D (Hardy Decl.) 6 [Dkt. 21–7], Ex. A to Hardy Decl. (FOIA Request 1210917) [Dkt. 21–7]; Def. MSJ, Ex. E (Luczynski Decl.)7 [Dkt. 21–8], Ex. A to Luczynski Decl. (FOIA Request 2013–1104) [Dkt. 21–8]. The one constant across all of the Requests, however, was the presence of a cover letter. Except for the recipient address block, each cover letter was the same: two short paragraphs explaining that Mr. Cunningham sought information regarding a confidential informant from North Carolina.
On March 11, 2013, Mr. Cunningham submitted FOIA Requests to FBI and EOUSA. Preceding both Requests were nearly identical cover pages. The substantive portions of the cover letter read in total:
See FOIA Request 1210917 at 1 (errors in original); FOIA Request 2013–1104 at 1 (errors in original).8 FBI designated the Request it received as FOIA Request 1210917, Hardy Decl. ¶ 7, and EOUSA designated the Request it received as FOIA Request 2013–1104, Ex. B to Luczynski Decl. (Apr. 18, 2013 Letter from EOUSA) [Dkt. 21–8] at 1.
FBI determined that Mr. Cunningham was seeking information that concerned him as it related to the North Carolina confidential informant. It then searched the indices of its Central Records System (CRS) for responsive records. Hardy Decl. ¶ 7. CRS is FBI's electronic repository for information compiled for law enforcement purposes as well as administrative, applicant, criminal, personnel, and other files. Id. ¶12. It is accessed via General Indices and an Automated Case Support System, which consists of Investigative Case Management, Electronic Case File, and a Universal Index, by searching for the subject. Id. ¶¶ 12–16. FBI searched CRS using the following search terms: “Benjamin Cunningham,” “Cunningham, Benjamin,” “Cunningham, B,” “North Carolina State Reliable Confidential Informant,” and “North Carolina Confidential Informant Program.” FBI used Mr. Cunningham's birthdate to aid its identification of responsive records. Yet, no responsive records were located.9 Id. ¶¶ 18, 20.
On March 28, 2013, FBI informed Mr. Cunningham that it had not located any records responsive to his FOIA Request. Ex. C to Hardy Decl. (Mar. 28, 2013 Letter from FBI) [Dkt. 21–7] at 1. FBI offered to conduct another search if Mr. Cunningham provided it with additional information concerning the subject of his request. Id. Mr. Cunningham instead appealed FBI's determination to OIP, see Ex. D to Hardy Decl. (FOIA Appeal AP–2013–02815) [Dkt. 21–7], which affirmed FBI's action, see Pl. MSJ [Dkt. 19], Ex. (June 7, 2013 Letter from OIP) [Dkt. 19] at 1.10
EOUSA, on the other hand, did not conduct a search. On April 18, 2013, EOUSA informed Mr. Cunningham that his request for records was improper. EOUSA noted that Mr. Cunningham had “requested records concerning a third party,” and that such records “cannot be released absent express authorization and consent of the third party, proof that the subject of [the] request is deceased, or a clear demonstration that the public interest in disclosure outweighs the personal privacy interest and that significant public benefit would result from the disclosure of the ... records.” Apr. 18, 2013 Letter from EOUSA at 1. EOUSA added that FOIA Exemptions 6 and 7(C) also generally exempt from disclosure the records that Mr. Cunningham had requested. EOUSA offered to search for public records upon request and provided Mr. Cunningham with a form for resubmitting his request should he obtain written authorization and consent from the third party. Id.
Mr. Cunningham subsequently appealed EOUSA's determination. OIP reviewed Mr. Cunningham's appeal, see Pl. MSJ, Ex. (June 5, 2013 Letter from OIP) [Dkt. 19] at 1, but has not issued a decision. Likely confused by Mr. Cunningham's multiple court filings, OIP mistakenly stated that Mr. Cunningham already had filed a lawsuit concerning EOUSA's determination and closed the matter.11 See 28 C.F.R. § 16.9(a)(3) ().
On March 19, 2013, the Marshals Service received a FOIA request from Mr. Cunningham. Def. MSJ, Ex. C (Bordley Decl.) 12 [Dkt. 21–6] ¶ 2. Mr. Cunningham included the same cover letter that accompanied his Requests to FBI and EOUSA. See Ex. A to Bordley Decl. (FOIA Request 2013USMS23118) [Dkt. 21–6] at 1. The Marshals Service responded the next day, informing Mr. Cunningham that it could not “confirm or deny the existence of records and/or information” about the confidential informant because any such records “would be exempt from disclosure pursuant to ... exemptions 7(C), (D), and (F)” of FOIA. Ex. B to Bordley Decl. (Mar. 20, 2013 Letter from Marshals Service) [Dkt. 21–6] at 1. The Marshals Service advised Mr. Cunningham that he could appeal its determination to OIP. Id. at 2.
Mr. Cunningham appealed the Marshals Service's determination, and OIP affirmed the Marshals Service's action on partly modified grounds. OIP explained that the Marshals Service was not required to conduct a search for responsive records because, “without consent, proof of death, official acknowledgment of an investigation, or an overriding public interest,” the information that Mr. Cunningham sought was “categorically exempt from disclosure” under Exemption 7(C) of FOIA. Pl. MSJ, Ex. (June 10, 2013 Letter from OIP) [Dkt. 19] at 1 (citing Blackwell v. FBI, 646 F.3d 37, 41–42 (D.C.Cir.2011) ). OIP added that, “to the extent that any responsive records exist, those records would also be categorically exempt from disclosure pursuant to” FOIA Exemptions 7(D) and (F). Id.
On March 25, 2013, OJP received a FOIA request from Mr. Cunningham. See Def. MSJ, Ex. B (Lee Decl.) 13 [Dkt. 21–5] ¶ 3. Again, the same cover letter that was attached to Mr. Cunningham's Requests to FBI, EOUSA, and the Marshals Service was appended to the Request to OJP. See Ex. A to Lee Decl. (FOIA Request 13–237) [Dkt. 21–5] at 1. Mr. Cunningham also contacted OJP by telephone on March 25 and acknowledged that he had sent the same request to the Marshals Service. However, Mr. Cunningham requested that OJP also process the request. Lee Decl. ¶ 3.
OJP designated the request as FOIA Request No. 13–237, and directed OVC to conduct a search for responsive records. Id. OJP states that it did not itself conduct a search for records because it concluded that Mr. Cunningham's request did not relate to the types of records that OJP generates or would have in its files. According to an affidavit from OJP, the agency “provides innovative leadership to federal, state, local, and tribal justice systems, by disseminating state-of-the-art knowledge and practices across...
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