International Refugee Assistance Project et al v. Trump et al

Filing 163

ORDER granting 90 MOTION for Other Relief for Jane Doe #2 to Proceed Under Pseudonym. Signed by Judge Theodore D. Chuang on 3/17/2017. (jf3s, Deputy Clerk)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE
ASSISTANCE PROJECT, a project of the
Urban Justice Center, Inc., on behalf of itself
and its clients,
HIAS, INC., on behalf of itself and its clients,
MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ASSOCIATION of
North America, Inc., on behalf of itself and its
members,
MUHAMMED METEAB,
PAUL HARRISON,
IBRAHIM AHMED MOHOMED,
JOHN DOES Nos. 1 & 3, and
JANE DOE NO.2,
Plaintiffs,
v.

Civil Action No. TDC-17-0361

DONALD J. TRUMP, in his official capacity
as President of the United States,
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY,
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF
NA TIONAL INTELLIGENCE,
JOHN F. KELLY, in his official capacity as
Secretary of Homeland Security,
REX W. TILLERSON, in his official capacity
as Secretary of State, and
MICHAEL DEMPSEY, in his official capacity
as Acting Director of National Intelligence,
Defendants.

MEMORANDUM ORDER
On March 10, 2017, Plaintiffs amended their Complaint to seek the invalidation of
Executive Order 13,780, "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United

States" ("Executive

Order"), 82 Fed. Reg. 13209 (Mar. 9, 2017).

individual plaintiffs, include Jane Doe NO.2.

Plaintiffs added certain

Pending before the Court is Jane Doe No. 2's

Motion for Leave to Proceed Under Pseudonym.

Defendants do not currently oppose the

Motion. For the reasons set forth below, the Motion is granted.
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide that the "title of the complaint must name
all the parties."

Fed. R. Civ. P. 10(a); see also D. Md. Local R. 102.2(a) (requiring that

complaints "contain the names and addresses of all parties and the county of residence of any
Maryland party").
proceedings.

This requirement serves the public's important interest in open judicial

Doe v. Pub. Citizen, 749 F.3d 246, 273 (4th Cir. 2014). However, "in exceptional

circumstances, compelling concerns relating to personal privacy or confidentiality may warrant
some degree of anonymity in judicial proceedings, including use of a pseudonym."

Id

In

deciding whether to allow a party to proceed under a pseudonym, the court must balance "the
party's stated interest in anonymity against the public's interest in openness and any prejudice
that anonymity would pose to the opposing party."

Id at 274.

The United States Court of

Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has identified a non-exhaustive list of factors that the court should
consider:
(l) whether the justification asserted by the requesting party is merely to avoid
the annoyance and criticism that may attend any litigation or is to preserve
privacy in a matter of sensitive and highly personal nature;
(2) whether identification poses a risk of retaliatory physical or mental harm to
the requesting party or even more critically, to innocent non-parties;
(3) the ages of the persons whose privacy interests are sought to be protected;
(4) whether the action is against a governmental or private party; and
(5) the risk of unfairness to the opposing party from allowing an action against it
to proceed anonymously.
James v. Jacobsen, 6 F.3d 233, 238 (4th Cir. 1993).

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Most of these factors weigh in favor of Jane Doe No. 2's position.

First, she has

plausibly demonstrated that filing without a pseudonym creates a risk of retaliatory harm to her
sister. Jane Doe No. 2's sister and her family are Syrian refugees who are currently living in a
refugee hotel on the border of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Jane Doe NO.2 Decl. ~~ 7-8, ECF No.
90-1. Jane Doe NO.2 believes that the disclosure of her participation in the case would make her
sister more easily identifiable and subject her to "harassment or further persecution" by the
government of Saudi Arabia, where "persecution of Syrian refugees" is rampant.

Id. at ~ 12.

For the reasons stated in this Court's March 1, 2017 Memorandum Opinion granting a Motion
for Leave to File Under Pseudonyms by other individual plaintiffs in this case, this potential of
physical harm against her sister, who is an innocent non-party, weighs strongly in favor of Jane
Doe No. 2's request to proceed anonymously.

Mem. Op. 4, ECF No. 66.

Second, these facts also establish that her request is made to preserve privacy in her
sister's immigration status, "a matter of sensitive and highly personal nature." James, 6 F.3d at
238; see, e.g., Hispanic Interest Coal. of Ala. v. Governor of Alabama, 691 F.3d 1236, 1247 &
n.8 (11th Cir. 2012) (identifying cases in which courts protected the disclosure of information
about the plaintiffs' immigration status). As with the other individual plaintiffs proceeding under
pseudonym in this action, Jane Doe No. 2's desire to avoid disclosure of such information thus
goes beyond protecting her from the "annoyance and criticism that may attend any litigation."
James, 6 F.3d at 238; see Mem. Op. 5-6.
Third, for the reasons explained in the Court's March 1,2017 Memorandum Opinion, see
id. at 5-6, permitting Jane Doe NO.2 to proceed anonymously is more likely to be justified here,
because the action has been brought against the federal government.

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Fourth, where Defendants do not oppose the Motion, there is no claim of prejudice or
reputational harm, and the questions presented are "purely legal," Doe v. Pittsylvania Cty., 844
F. Supp. 2d 724, 731 (W.D. Va. 2012) (quoting Doe J v. Merten, 219 F.R.D. 387, 390 (E.D. Va.
2004)), the risk of unfairness to the opposing party from allowing Jane Doe NO.2 to use a
pseudonym is minimal. See Mem. Op. 7.
The only factor weighing against Jane Doe No. 2's request is the age of the individuals
whose privacy interests are at issue, because her sister is an adult.

On balance, particularly

because of the potential safety risk to Jane Doe No. 2's sister in Saudi Arabia, the Court finds
that the factors that support permitting Jane Doe NO.2 to proceed anonymously substantially
outweigh the presumption of public access. Having reached this conclusion based on the facts
discussed above, the Court need not address Jane Doe No. 2's additional claims of potential
retaliation and whether they support the requested relief.
Accordingly,

it is hereby ordered that Jane Doe No. 2's Motion, ECF No. 90,

GRANTED.

Date: March.12-,

2017
THEODORE D. CH
United States Distric

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IS