Terris, Pravlik & Millian, LLP v. District of Columbia
DC Superior Court, Case No. 2020-CA-3087-B
Court Documents
D.C. Superior Court Order Entering Permanent Injunction, October 28, 2026
DC Superior Court Order Holding the District of Columbia in Contempt, February 11, 2026
DC Court of Appeals Decision Affirming the Superior Court and Remanding, June 5, 2025
TPM’s Appeal Brief, dated January 28, 2022
Other Open Government/FOIA Cases
Center for Family Representation v. United States Department of Homeland Security et al
The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights v. U.S. Department of Justice
The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition v. Federal Highway Administration
In 2020, Terris, Pravlik & Millian, LLP (TPM) brought a DC Freedom of Information Act (DC FOIA) case against the District of Columbia. TPM asked the D.C. Superior Court to order the District to turn over budget materials that reflect determinations by D.C. agencies about how much money they need to do their work. D.C. law requires that information be made public and posted on a District website.
TPM won in the Superior Court. The Mayor appealed, arguing that the transparency imposed by statute would violate the D.C. Charter. TPM was supported on appeal by the Council of the District of Columbia, the D.C. Open Government Coalition, the ACLU of D.C., the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, Public Citizen, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Washington, D.C. Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, all of which appeared as amici curiae.
The D.C. Court of Appeals, like the Superior Court, rejected the Mayor’s argument that she was entitled to withhold the documents and remanded the case for the Superior Court to clarify exactly what information must be publicly posted and when. The Court of Appeals underscored the importance of this issue, stating:
“The generation that made the nation . . . committed itself to the principle that a democracy cannot function unless the people are permitted to know what their government is up to.” U.S. Dep’t of Just. v. Reps. Comm. for Freedom of Press, 489 U.S. 749, 772-73 (1989) (emphasis in original) (quoting EPA v. Mink, 410 U.S. 73, 80 (1973) (Douglas, J., dissenting)); see also Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft, 303 F.3d 681, 683 (6th Cir. 2002) (“Democracies die behind closed doors.”). That principle has informed decades of case law under the Federal Freedom of Information Act and informs our case law under the District of Columbia Freedom of Information Act (D.C. FOIA).
The District thereafter still failed to produce the budget documents and place them online and TPM moved for contempt and for a permanent injunction. On February 11, 2026, the Superior Court held the District in contempt, which the District later purged by producing and publishing the required documents for past years. On October 28, 2026, the Court entered a permanent injunction requiring that such documents be produced annually during the budget process in the future for OSSE and DCPS.
The determinations by D.C. agencies about how much money they need to do their work were sought as part of TPM’s work monitoring an injunction related to special education on behalf of preschoolers with disabilities (in DL v. District of Columbia) and will be of value to many in the District, including the D.C. Council, which has a long simmering dispute with Mayor Muriel Bowser over access to these very documents.
Contact Todd Gluckman at tgluckman@tpmlaw.com or (202) 204-8482 with any questions.