Jewel et al v. National Security Agency et al

Filing 210

ORDER GRANTING (107 in 4:13-cv-03287-JSW) and (207 in 4:08-cv-4373-JSW) STIPULATION for an Extension of Time To Process for Public Filing Certain Classified Declarations and for an Extension of Time To File a Rule 11 Certification Regarding Preservation. Signed by Judge Jeffrey S. White on April 21, 2014. (jswlc3, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 4/22/2014)

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Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document207 Filed04/21/14 Page1 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 STUART F. DELERY Assistant Attorney General JOSEPH H. HUNT Director, Federal Programs Branch ANTHONY J. COPPOLINO Deputy Branch Director JAMES J. GILLIGAN Special Litigation Counsel MARCIA BERMAN Senior Trial Counsel BRYAN DEARINGER Trial Attorney RODNEY PATTON Trial Attorney JULIA BERMAN Trial Attorney U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division 20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Rm. 6102 Washington, D.C. 20001 Phone: (202) 514-3358; Fax: (202) 616-8470 11 Attorneys for the Government Defendants 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION _______________________________________ ) ) Case No. 08-cv-4373-JSW CAROLYN JEWEL, et al., ) Case No. 13-cv-3287-JSW ) Plaintiffs, ) STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ) ORDER FOR AN EXTENSION OF v. ) TIME TO PROCESS FOR PUBLIC FILING CERTAIN CLASSIFIED NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, et al., ) ) DECLARATIONS AND FOR AN ) EXTENSION OF TIME TO Defendants. FILE A RULE 11 CERTIFICATION _______________________________________) ) REGARDING PRESERVATION ) IN FIRST UNITARIAN FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH OF ) LOS ANGELES, et al., ) Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1) & Civil L.R. 6-2 ) Courtroom 11, 19th Floor Plaintiffs, ) The Honorable Jeffrey S. White ) v. ) NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, et al., ) ) ) Defendants. _______________________________________) 27 28 [Stipulation and Proposed Order] in Jewel v. Nat’l Security Agency, 08-cv-4373-JSW; First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. Nat’l Security Agency, 13-cv-3287-JSW Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document207 Filed04/21/14 Page2 of 6 1 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(b)(1) & Civil Local Rule 6-2, the 2 Government requests, and the parties, by and through their undersigned counsel, hereby stipulate 3 to and respectfully request that the Court (1) extend the time for the Government to complete its 4 classification review of certain classified declarations previously filed in Jewel v. National 5 Security Agency, Civ. No. 08-4373-JSW, Shubert v. Obama, Civ. No. 07-0693-JSW, and First 6 Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. National Security Agency, Civ. No. 13-3287-JSW; and 7 (2) extend the time for the Government to file its certification regarding preservation of evidence 8 pursuant to this Court’s March 21, 2014, Preservation Order in First Unitarian (ECF No. 103) 9 (“Preservation Order”). 10 (1) With respect to the first matter (classification review), the Government requires 11 additional time to comply with this Court’s order, entered at the hearing on March 19, 2014, that 12 the Government on or before April 21, 2014, identify, review, and process for public filing 13 certain classified declarations filed in the above-referenced cases to the extent that such 14 declarations contain information that has since been publicly disclosed by the Government. 15 Whereas the Government had previously completed a similar project concerning seven 16 previously classified declarations within the almost three months’ time the Court allowed for 17 compliance, see Jewel, 08-cv-4373-JSW, ECF No. 161 (Amended Civil Minute Order dated 18 Sept. 27, 2013), the Court’s order of March 19 required the completion of a similar process for 19 ten declarations in about one month. 20 The Government has not—despite significant efforts—been able to comply with the 21 Court’s order to complete its classification review of these ten declarations by April 21, 2014. 22 Significant information in the declarations remains highly classified, which must be separated 23 from any information that no longer remains classified. Each declaration must undergo several 24 layers of careful line-by-line review before public versions can be produced. These reviews also 25 require inter-agency consultation and coordination, which takes additional time and resources 26 from various governmental components that have a limited number of individuals who have the 27 experience and clearances necessary to perform these reviews. These individuals must conduct 28 these reviews in addition to other classification-review tasks such as complying with Freedom of [Stipulation and Proposed Order] in Jewel v. Nat’l Security Agency, 08-cv-4373-JSW; First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. Nat’l Security Agency, 13-cv-3287-JSW 2 Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document207 Filed04/21/14 Page3 of 6 1 Information Act (FOIA) requests and court-ordered deadlines in related FOIA litigation. For 2 these reasons, the Government respectfully requests, and Plaintiffs do not oppose, a two-week 3 extension until May 5, 2014, for the Government to complete its classification-review, 4 processing, and (as appropriate) public filing of the ten declarations that the Government has 5 identified as subject to the Court’s March 19 order. 6 (2) With respect to the second matter (preservation certification), the Government 7 requests a similar two-week extension of time to submit the certification required by this Court’s 8 Preservation Order in First Unitarian. That Order requires counsel for each party by April 21, 9 2014, to certify to the Court, under seal and pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11, that 10 the directive counsel are required, under paragraph E of the Order, to issue to their respective 11 clients has been carried out. From the date the Preservation Order was entered, Government 12 counsel and the defendant agencies have exercised due diligence in addressing every aspect of 13 that Order, including the provisions of paragraph E regarding practices of any party involving the 14 routine destruction, recycling, relocation, or mutation of materials that may be relevant to the 15 case, so as to be in a position to submit the required certification as directed. Notwithstanding 16 these efforts, in light of the need for coordination between various defendant agencies and 17 components, additional time is needed to complete the certification process. 18 19 20 The Government Defendants respectfully request, and Plaintiffs do not oppose, an extension of that deadline from April 21 to May 5, 2014. The Court has not set a hearing date for these matters. There have been no previous 21 requests to alter these deadlines, and the requested changes should not impact the overall 22 schedule of this case. 23 24 25 26 27 28 [Stipulation and Proposed Order] in Jewel v. Nat’l Security Agency, 08-cv-4373-JSW; First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. Nat’l Security Agency, 13-cv-3287-JSW 3 Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document207 Filed04/21/14 Page4 of 6 1 2 3 Dated: April 21, 2014 Respectfully Submitted, 4 5 STUART F. DELERY Assistant Attorney General 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 JOSEPH H. HUNT Director, Federal Programs Branch ANTHONY J. COPPOLINO Deputy Branch Director MARCIA BERMAN Senior Trial Counsel marcia.berman@usdoj.gov BRYAN DEARINGER Trial Attorney RODNEY PATTON Trial Attorney JULIA BERMAN Trial Attorney By: /s/ James J. Gilligan JAMES J. GILLIGAN Special Litigation Counsel james.gilligan@usdoj.gov U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch 20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Rm. 6102 Washington, D.C. 20001 Phone: (202) 514-3358 Fax: (202) 616-8470 24 25 Attorneys for the Government Defendants Sued in their Official Capacities 26 27 28 [Stipulation and Proposed Order] in Jewel v. Nat’l Security Agency, 08-cv-4373-JSW; First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. Nat’l Security Agency, 13-cv-3287-JSW 4 Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document207 Filed04/21/14 Page5 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 By: /s/_____________ CINDY COHN cindy@eff.org LEE TIEN KURT OPSAHL JAMES S. TYRE MARK RUMOLD ANDREW CROCKER ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION 454 Shotwell Street San Francisco, CA 94110 Telephone: (415) 436-9333 Fax: (415) 436-9993 RICHARD R. WIEBE (SBN 121156) LAW OFFICE OF RICHARD R. WIEBE One California Street, Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94111 Telephone: (415) 433-3200 Fax: (415) 433-6382 wiebe@pacbell.net Attorneys for Jewel Plaintiffs 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 [Stipulation and Proposed Order] in Jewel v. Nat’l Security Agency, 08-cv-4373-JSW; First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. Nat’l Security Agency, 13-cv-3287-JSW 5 Case4:08-cv-04373-JSW Document207 Filed04/21/14 Page6 of 6 1 * * * * 2 3 4 5 6 DECLARATION PURSUANT TO LOCAL RULE 5-1 I, James J. Gilligan, hereby declare pursuant to Local Rule 5-1 that I have obtained Plaintiffs’ concurrence in the filing of this document from Cindy Cohn, counsel for Plaintiffs. Executed on April 21, 2014, in Washington, D.C. 7 /s/ James J. Gilligan JAMES J. GILLIGAN 8 9 * * * * * 10 11 PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, it is ORDERED that the Government’s deadline for 12 completing its classification review, processing, and (as appropriate) public filing, of the ten 13 declarations that the Government has identified as subject to the Court’s March 19 order be 14 extended from April 21 to May 5, 2014. Similarly, PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, it is 15 ORDERED that the deadline of April 21 be extended to May 5, 2014, for the Government to 16 certify that the directive counsel are required to issue to their respective clients pursuant to 17 paragraph E of the Court’s Preservation Order in First Unitarian Order has been carried out. 18 19 20 21 AND IT IS SO ORDERED. April 21, 2014 Dated: ____________ ________________________________ The Hon. Jeffrey S. White United States District Judge 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 [Stipulation and Proposed Order] in Jewel v. Nat’l Security Agency, 08-cv-4373-JSW; First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. Nat’l Security Agency, 13-cv-3287-JSW 6

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