Judiciary offices don’t have to turn over records to Trump-aligned group, judge rules
By Tierney Sneed, CNN
(CNN) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that two entities that implement policy and conduct administrative tasks for the judicial branch are not required under a transparency law to turn over their communications to a private legal group aligned with President Donald Trump.
The opinion by Judge Trevor McFadden came in a longshot case brought by America First Legal, which argued the judicial offices were the type of executive branch agencies that are covered under the Freedom of Information Act — the federal public records law.
The entities — which are known as the Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office, and are led by judges — had refused to produce correspondences with Democratic lawmakers, prompting the FOIA lawsuit.
America First argued that the Judicial Conference is actually an executive agency that should be “overseen by the president, not the courts,” thus putting it under FOIA, which does not cover the judicial branch. The organization also contended during oral arguments last month that FOIA’s exemptions for the courts applied to judges and the law clerks that work in their chambers, but not the clerks and other officials who manage a courthouse’s administrative functions.
While the FOIA request predated the current Trump administration, the lawsuit itself was filed amid several major legal battles concerning the Trump White House’s control over independent and quasi-independent agencies.
The lawsuit’s lead defendant was US Chief Justice John Roberts, in his role as head of the Judicial Conference.
McFadden in his ruling Thursday concluded that “the Judicial Conference and Administrative Office do not appear to be the type of entities Congress had in mind in creating FOIA — Executive Branch departments and independent agencies.”
“Nothing about either entity’s structure suggests the President must supervise their employees or otherwise keep them ‘accountable,’ as is the case for executive officers,” he wrote.
The Administrative Office declined to comment for this story.
Roberts did not respond to request for comment. America First Legal — which was founded after Trump’s first term by top White House aide Stephen Miller — also did not respond immediately to CNN’s inquiry.
Gabe Roth, who leads Fix the Court, which advocates for judicial transparency, said that it was “obvious” that the offices in question were not subject to FOIA, but that Congress could act to give the public more insight into the judicial branch’s internal operations.
“Since this lawsuit is not the way to do that, I hope today’s ruling encourages Congress to consider legislation to create a real open records process in the judiciary,” Roth said in a statement.
CNN’s John Fritze contributed to this report.
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