Representatives of Streetsblog NYC and the First Amendment Clinic speak at a recent training session for clinic students. From left, the panelists were Evan Deakin ’25, a student with the clinic; Michael Linhorst, the clinic’s Local Journalism Attorney; Jesse Coburn, Streetsblog’s investigative reporter; Gersh Kuntzman, editor of Streetsblog; and Heather Murray, managing attorney of the Local Journalism Project.

Streetsblog NYC, represented by the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic, recently filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), alleging that the DOT systematically violates the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) by forcing nearly everyone who seeks public records to wait six months before receiving any responsive documents.

The lawsuit asks the New York Supreme Court to issue an injunction directing the DOT to end its practice of imposing uniform, half-year-long delays that prevent the public from finding out, in a timely way, what its government is up to.

The suit seeks to enforce the basic purpose behind FOIL—to promote an open and democratic government by giving everyone the right to request documents from state agencies. As long as requested documents do not fall into one of the law’s narrow exemptions, the agency is required to provide them—and it must do so in a reasonable timeframe under the circumstances of the individual request, typically within twenty days.

By filing this lawsuit, the clinic is seeking to establish new legal precedent. While such “policy or practice” cases are widely accepted in litigation regarding the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), New York courts have not yet recognized the claim under FOIL.

“Policy or practice claims give federal FOIA teeth,” said Evan Deakin ’25, a clinic student who worked on the suit. “If these claims are recognized under New York FOIL, agencies will no longer be able to use delay to circumvent the law’s requirement that government records be available to the public.”

The lawsuit alleges that Streetsblog has filed dozens of FOIL requests with the DOT since 2021, and each of them has faced a nearly identical, six-month delay. According to the complaint, Streetsblog requested a copy of the DOT Commissioner’s official calendar from a single day. DOT said it would take 187 days to respond. In another instance, according to the complaint, Streetsblog asked for a copy of a single contract, identified by contract number. DOT said its response would take 182 days. The complaint further alleges that Streetsblog requested DOT’s phone or email directory, and the agency again said it would take 187 days—and then it missed its own deadline.

“By imposing a six-month blanket delay in response to every one of our client’s requests, DOT is obviously making no effort to determine what a reasonable response time is for each request,” said Michael Linhorst, the clinic’s local journalism attorney. “They are regularly flouting the clear requirements of the law.”

Relying on public data, the complaint alleges that Streetsblog is not the only requestor to experience these delays. According to the complaint, out of all the requests that DOT received from the press between June 2021 and August 2024, the department gave itself an average of 182 days to respond. And, almost every single request—more than 98 percent—was delayed by longer than 170 days.

“Late news is hardly news at all,” said Cameron Misner ’24, who worked on the suit. “That is why it’s so important that we secure a forward-looking remedy that ensures the public’s timely access to government records.”

“This case is important not just to Streetsblog but to scores of reporters around the city whose ability to inform the public depends on receiving timely information from government officials,” said Gersh Kuntzman, editor of Streetsblog. “By routinely delaying virtually every FOIL request, the Adams administration effectively delays coverage of its actions so long that it becomes less newsworthy compared to whatever story of the day reporters are chasing.”

The lawsuit, Kuntzman et al. v. New York City Department of Transportation, is now pending in the New York County Supreme Court.

In addition to Linhorst, Deakin, and Misner, clinic students Andrew Brockmeyer ’25 and Sophia Gilbert ’25 and alumna Fernanda Pires Merouco ’20 worked on the lawsuit and the legal arguments behind it, with supervision from Heather Murray, managing attorney of the clinic’s Local Journalism Project.