Wednesday, June 2, 2021

No. 423: William Barr's New Legal Problem: An Update

On May 3, 2021, as reported in No. 421 (May 20, 2021), U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a 41-page partially redacted opinion. The opinion grew out of a lawsuit filed in 2019 by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) under the federal Freedom-of-Information Act against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). (See CREW v. DOJ, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, Case No 1:19-cv-1552.)

DOJ's Two Recent District Court Filings
On May 24, 2021, DOJ filed in the district court a one-page notice of appeal, and a 21-page motion for a partial stay pending appeal along with a partially redacted 10-page Exhibit A. Those documents are here.

Circuit Court Developments
On May 25, 2021, DOJ filed its appeal of Judge Jackson's opinion. (See CREW v. DOJ, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, Case No. 21-5113.)

On the same day, the circuit court clerk issued a 2-page order scheduling several items to be filed by June 24, 2021, and dispositive motions (if any) to be filed by July 9, 2021. The clerk's order is here.

General Observations
I do not know how long it will take for the circuit court to handle DOJ's appeal of Judge Jackson's opinion. I plan to report further significant developments in another update.

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