A long-awaited ruling fails to address serious issues within the U.S. State Department bureaucracy.

US District Court Judge Richard Leon—well known for his pro-government views—has issued a ruling upholding the State Department’s refusal to disclose information about the controversial decisions to impose import restrictions on coins of Cypriot and Chinese type. The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild and the other Plaintiffs in this suit remain committed to seeking transparency and accountability from the State Department (DOS) bureaucracy and are considering whether to appeal this ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Despite the disappointing decision, this litigation was in many ways a win for the plaintiffs. The mere fact that ACCG and the other Plaintiffs brought this FOIA action forced the State Department to process all the Plaintiff’s FOIA requests–including some that had been ignored by DOS for as much as three years. As a result of this action, literally hundreds of pages of requested text were released and the State Department was prompted to produce documents implicating high level political interference as the reason for the Cypriot decision. Other information stemming from this litigation suggests that State Department personnel added coins to the Chinese request without a formal request from China for that inclusion. The decision rendered by Judge Leon dealt with those items still remaining on the plaintiff’s list that DOS had refused to release. While the plaintiffs obviously would have been happier with a summary judgment on their motion, the process was not without considerable rewards.

The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild still plans to pursue a test case regarding whether those import restrictions were promulgated in an arbitrary and capricious fashion. A copy of Judge Leon’s Memorandum Opinion can be found here.

Related posts:

1. Import Restrictions Imposed on Cypriot Coins
2. Ancient Coins: Freedom of Information and New Import Restrictions sought on Greek “Cultural Property”
3. Coin Collectors to Challenge State Department on Import Restrictions
4. State Department Adds New Import Restrictions
5. Professional Numismatists Guild Assists in Combating Coin Import Restrictions
6. FOIA Suit Filed Against US Dept of State
7. IAPN Comments on FOIA law suit
8. Ancient Coin Collectors Challenge U.S. State Dept. Bureaucrats After Baltimore Seizure
9. Ancient Coin Importation Restrictions: Thoughts on becoming a target of the “cultural property” advocates.
10. Coin collectors, art dealers fear restrictions on Chinese imports