Weird. Don't you at least have to allege that the defendants did something wrong to start a lawsuit? Even if the requested documents don't have to be released, the requesters didn't do anything wrong. I feel like these lawsuits should be dismissed.
The legal term for that the government is seeking is "declaratory judgement"[0].
"A declaratory judgment, also called a declaration, is the legal determination of a court that resolves legal uncertainty for the litigants. It is a form of legally binding preventive adjudication by which a party involved in an actual or possible legal matter can ask a court to conclusively rule on and affirm the rights, duties, or obligations of one or more parties in a civil dispute (subject to any appeal)."
Here the government is asking the court to declare that the subject matter is off limits, and not available to be released, as a matter of law.
Declaratory judgments are probably best known here on HN with regards to patent litigation. If a company receives a 'cease and desist', alleging the non-licensed use of a patent, that company might file for a declaratory judgement that their product does not actual infringe on the patent.
Still screwy, IMHO, since as I understand it there is a means for the gov't to deny the request, there is usually some appeals process, whatever.. as article states this seems like a way to buck that process and shunt it to another process which has negative consequences for the requestor in the form of legal fees..
And surprisingly unless it is the exact same branch and department of government forcing it to spend money doesn't teach it a lesson, it just cuts education or start asking for more taxes.
> The court concludes that the right to bring the issue to court belongs exclusively to the requestor, not the government agency.