Center for Public Integrity v. U.S. Dept. Health and Human Servs. [1]

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to producing investigative journalism on issues of public concern, requested to be treated as a representative of the news media for purposes of document requests it made under the Freedom of Information Act. Such a designation would have allowed CPI to pay only photocopying costs, instead of higher processing fees applicable to the general public. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) denied CPI's requests on several occasions.

On October 24, 2007, CPI sued DHHS, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief on the question whether CPI was a "representative of the news media" for purposes of assessing processing fees under FOIA. After the parties filed cross motions for summary judgment, the court held [2] that, because CPI had a concrete, "firm intention" to use the information from the FOIA requests to publish one or more "distinct works" such as reports and press releases, CPI qualified as a representative of the news media. The court distinguished CPI from groups like Judicial Watch that previously failed to qualify as representatives of the news media because they had only vague plans to publish creative or analytical works based upon FOIA requests in general (and not necessarily the information from any particular request).

On October 2, 2007, DHHS filed a notice of appeal which it subsequently withdrew.

Update:

As of August 17, 2007, CPI's bill of costs and motion for attorney's fees was pending with the court.