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This memorandum opinion by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, dated March 27, 2007, rules in Leslie Kean's FOIA suit against NASA over records about the object said to have crashed in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania on December 9, 1965. The court found NASA had not shown its searches were adequate and noted likely overlooked Cosmos 96 records. It upheld NASA's withholding of two emails under Exemption 5 and ordered the parties to propose new search procedures.
9 D. Fourth Search In 2006, based on plaintiff’s pleadings in this case, NASA undertook a fourth search in an effort to cure any deficiencies in the third search. In addition, NASA submitted additional declarations describing the prior searches in greater detail. In its fourth search, NASA reexamined the sixteen Record Center boxes. This time, responsive documents were found and disclosed to plaintiff. See Def.’s Notice, Mar. 12, 2007. NASA, however, did not perform further searches at the various NASA Centers, and did not submit declarations with more detail as to how the various NASA Center searches were actually conducted. II. Procedural History Kean filed the instant suit in December 2003. Defendant moved for summary judgment in May 2004, arguing that the submitted declarations and exhibits demonstrated that its third search for documents was adequate under FOIA, and that its claimed exemptions were proper under FOIA. Plaintiff opposed the motion, arguing primarily that the documentation of NASA’s third search was inadequate to allow the Court to grant defendant summary judgment. Plaintiff also argued that NASA’s admittedly inadequate initial efforts and prior false statements demonstrate that NASA acted in bad faith in responding to her FOIA request. Finally, plaintiff challenged defendant’s withholding of two Case 1:03-cv-02509-EGS Document 45 Filed 03/27/07 Page 9 of 21
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