Campaign Legal Center v. United States Department of Justice

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
)
CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER, )
)
Plaintiff, )
)
v. ) Civil Action No. 18-cv-1771 (TSC)
)
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT )
OF JUSTICE, )
)
Defendant. )
)
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Plaintiff Campaign Legal Center (“CLC”) sued the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”),
seeking to compel responses to its February 2, 2018, Freedom of Information Act request.
Specifically, CLC seeks records pertaining to a letter Arthur Gary sent to the Census Bureau on
December 12, 2017, requesting that it add a Citizenship question to the 2020 Census
Questionnaire (hereinafter the “Gary Letter”).
On June 1, 2020, the court partly granted and partly denied each party’s cross-motion for
summary judgment. ECF Nos. 29; 30. DOJ appealed the portion of the court’s order pertaining
to the deliberative privilege process, and in the meantime, the parties submitted renewed cross-
motions for summary judgment. ECF Nos. 48; 52.
On May 17, 2022, the D.C. Circuit reversed the court’s order in part and remanded.
Campaign Legal Ctr. v. United States Dep’t of Just., 34 F.4th 14 (D.C. Cir. 2022). The Circuit
found that the process of drafting the Gary Letter to request the addition of a citizenship question
in a way that protected the DOJ’s litigation and policy interests involved the exercise of
policymaking discretion, and so the letter’s content itself was a relevant final decision for
purposes of FOIA’s deliberative process privilege. Id. at 18. The Circuit thus held that DOJ
properly withheld non-final drafts of the letter, and that most of DOJ’s redactions of associated
emails were lawful. Id. The Circuit also found that the record failed to establish whether several
redacted emails were pre-decisional and deliberative, and remanded for this court to reexamine
those documents. Id. at 18–19.
The mandate issued on July 11, 2022, ECF No. 57, and on August 7, 2022, the court
instructed the parties to meet and confer, and file a Joint Status Report setting forth their
respective positions on the impact of the Circuit’s decision, see Min. Order (Aug. 7, 2022). The
court then held a status conference on August 19, 2022, to discuss the parties’ positions.
Upon consideration of the Circuit’s decision, the parties’ respective positions on the
import of that decision on their pending motions, and for reasons explained at the August 19,
2022, status conference, the court will DENY WITHOUT PREJUDICE DOJ’s Motion for
Summary Judgment, ECF No. 48, and CLC’s Cross Motion for Summary Judgment, ECF No.
52.
The parties shall meet and confer and file a joint proposed briefing schedule for renewed
cross motions for summary judgment by August 23, 2022, at 5:00 pm.
Date: August 19, 2022
Tanya S. Chutkan
TANYA S. CHUTKAN
United States District Judge