article_snippet: The legal action comes after repeated requests filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act have gone unfulfilled.
article_snippet: State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach declined to comment. 
article_snippet: State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach had previously cited the State Department's heavy annual load of FOIA requests — 19,000 last year
article_snippet: — in saying that the State Department 'does the State Department best to meet the State Department FOIA responsibilities.
article_snippet: State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach said the State Department takes requests 'first in, first out,' but noted that timing depends on 'the complexity of the request.'
article_snippet: the State Department says the State Department will take several months to review the material Clinton turned over last year.
article_snippet: State's failure to ensure that Clinton's governmental emails were retained and preserved by the agency, and the agency failure timely to seek out and search those emails in response to AP's requests, indicate at the very least that State has not engaged in the diligent, good-faith search that FOIA requires,' says AP's legal filing.
article_snippet: Other organizations have also sued the State Department recently after lengthy delays responding to public record requests.
article_snippet: In December, the conservative political advocacy group Citizens United sued the State Department for failing to disclose flight records showing who accompanied Clinton on overseas trips.
article_snippet: Last week, the National Security Archive, an organization that gathers declassified government records, filed a lawsuit after waiting more than seven years for the State Department to release of details of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger's telephone conversations.
article_snippet: Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, predicted the State Department would speed up the State Department review facing legal action, particularly given that Clinton has said that Clinton email correspondence doesn't include classified material. '
article_snippet: When the government is under a court deadline, or really wants to review, the government can whip through thousands of pages in a matter of weeks, which the government should do here,' Blanton said.
article_snippet: the State Department generally takes about 450 days to turn over records the State Department considers to be part of complex requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
article_snippet: That is seven times longer than the State Department and CIA, and 30 times longer than the State Department.
article_snippet: An inspector general's report in 2012 criticized the State Department practices as 'inefficient and ineffective,' citing a heavy workload, small staff and interagency problems.