The watchdog organization Forum for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Department of Homeland Security over records related to the goals, tactics and execution of “Operation Metro Surge.”
The Forum for Constitutional Rights requested records in January.
Attorney Zain Shirazi is representing the Forum in the lawsuit. He says the Forum properly filed its request under the law and would normally expect between 20 to 30 days to receive a response.
“We allege that over 100 business days have elapsed so far without a determination on the FOIA requests,” Shirazi said. “So we bring two counts: one is a failure to make and notify determination, and, second, to fail to produce documents and records.”
Matt Ehling is the Forum’s president. He says public records requests allow citizens to examine government plans and actions that affect constitutional rights.
“‘Operation Metro Surge’ was one of the largest federal government operations, if not the largest operation by the federal government in our state. The citizens of this state not only need to know what happened,” Ehling said, “they need to understand the rationale on the basis, particularly how the government conceives of the powers that it was able to bring to bear on the streets of Minnesota.”
Ehling says if they succeed in their lawsuit, they plan to release the public records through the media and make them available on the Forum's website.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not yet provided a comment on the lawsuit to MPR News.
