Court Rules in Favor of Public Body in FOIA Case
In 2023, a FOIA requester mailed over 40 letters to the Illinois Secretary of State (ILSOS) seeking copies of various records. After ILSOS did not respond to his requests, the requester sued ILSOS alleging various FOIA violations. ILSOS filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, supported by the affidavit of its FOIA Officer, because (1) the requester failed to comply with ILSOS’s FOIA regulations, because the requests were improperly addressed—not directed to the designated address for ILSOS’s FOIA officer as identified on its forms, and (2) because ILSOS never received the FOIA requests, it did not violate FOIA. The circuit court ruled in favor of ILSOS, and the requester appealed. On appeal, the Fifth District Court of Appeals upheld the circuit court’s ruling in favor of ILSOS. Lenard v. Office of the Illinois Secretary of State.
The appellate court determined that Section 3(h) of FOIA expressly authorizes public bodies to establish FOIA regulations governing the time, place, and person from whom records may be requested. In this case, because the requester failed to comply with ILSOS’s FOIA regulations for submitting FOIA requests by sending his requests to the wrong address rather than the address prescribed by ILSOS in its forms, the appellate court determined that ILSOS never received his requests within the meaning of FOIA, and ILSOS’s duty to respond was never triggered. Furthermore, because the requester’s FOIA requests were improperly submitted to ILSOS, the requester was never denied access to public records, and ILSOS did not improperly deny the requester access to records in violation of FOIA.
Post Authored by Eugene Bolotnikov, Ancel Glink
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