Case: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility v. U.S. Department of the Interior

(This summary is temporary while we research the case.)

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a non-profit organization headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, filed this Freedom of Information Act complaint against the U.S. Department of the Interior on May 11, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On February 25, 2026, PEER submitted three identical FOIA requests to DOI's National Park Service, Office of the Secretary, and Office of the Solicitor, seeking records related to the funding of Freedom250 and its connections to the United States Semiquincentennial celebration, including memoranda of understanding, donor vetting documents, communications with Freedom250 representatives, and grant agreements. All three components acknowledged receipt in early March 2026 and assigned tracking numbers, but the statutory deadline of twenty working days passed on March 25, 2026, without any final determination or document production from any office. As of the filing date, NPS had identified approximately 9,000 potentially responsive pages but estimated it would not begin rolling production until August 3, 2026 (i.e. after the July 2026 America 250 celebrations) while DOI SOL identified over 1,600 potentially responsive documents but produced none, and DOI OS anticipated an initial release in June 2026 without providing a firm schedule. PEER alleged that DOI's failure to comply with FOIA's statutory deadlines constituted a wrongful withholding of records, and it sought a declaratory judgment, a permanent injunction compelling disclosure, attorneys' fees and costs, and other appropriate relief.

This case is ongoing.