Opinion ID: 2750931
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the history of the discovery dispute

Text: The issue before the Court is whether the trial court erred by ordering the production of 538 pages of documents in the possession of non-parties to the redistricting litigation. We use the term “non-parties” to refer to all of the appellants in this proceeding, which consist of Pat Bainter, the president of Data Targeting, Inc., a political consulting company; two Data Targeting employees— Bainter’s assistant and a computer programmer; and the company itself. The Legislature, which was the primary defendant in the trial court during the underlying redistricting litigation, is not a party to this proceeding. Neither is the Florida State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was an intervenor-defendant in the underlying litigation, or the Florida Secretary of State or Attorney General, who were also named defendants in the trial court. Data Targeting is a political consulting company that provides strategy, polling, and a host of related campaign services to legislators and candidates for filed an amici curiae brief in this Court in support of unsealing the documents. Those organizations included: (1) the Associated Press; (2) the Bradenton Herald, Inc.; (3) the First Amendment Foundation; (4) the Florida Society of News Editors; (5) Gannett Broadcasting, Inc.; (6) Gannett Co., Inc.; (7) Halifax Media Group, LLC; (8) Media General Operations, Inc.; (9) Miami Herald Media Co.; (10) Morris Communications Corp.; (11) Orlando Sentinel Communications, LLC; (12) Scripps Media, Inc.; and (13) Sun-Sentinel Co., LLC. -6- public office who are affiliated with the Republican Party. These disputed documents, which the non-parties belatedly asserted are privileged under the First Amendment and as trade secrets, were subpoenaed in support of the central claim in the underlying redistricting litigation that Bainter and other political consultants acted in concert with the Legislature to produce individual districts and an overall redistricting map favorable to the Republican Party and incumbents, in violation of the Florida Constitution’s redistricting standards. We comprehensively set forth the history of the two-year protracted litigation over the documents in question to highlight the way in which the nonparties thwarted the discovery process. The litigation surrounding these documents began on September 13, 2012, when the individuals and groups challenging the constitutional validity of the 2012 congressional redistricting plan (“the challengers”)4 issued a subpoena duces tecum for deposition to Bainter. This subpoena provided that Bainter was “to bring to the deposition any document in [his] possession or control that relates to or discusses” any of the following: 4. The history of the underlying litigation and a detailed overview of the nature of the challengers’ constitutional claims is contained in this Court’s decision in League of Women Voters of Florida v. Florida House of Representatives, 132 So. 3d 135 (Fla. 2013), in which this Court recognized a legislative privilege but held that this qualified privilege must yield to permit the discovery of relevant information and communications, including the testimony of legislators and legislative staff members, pertaining to the constitutional validity of the challenged redistricting plan. -7- 1. Congressional redistricting in Florida in 2012; 2. Congressional redistricting maps (whole or partial, completed or draft) that were: a. submitted to or discussed with any legislator, legislative staff member, or any legislative committee; or b. submitted to or discussed with any person with the intent that the person would convey it to any legislator, legislative staff member, or any legislative committee submitted to, considered by or passed by the Florida Legislature; 3. Any communication with any person about the subjects described in 1 and 2 above; 4. Any knowledge you have about: a. the method or process by which the 2012 Florida redistricting maps were drawn; b. any person who was involved in any way in drafting any map or district that was submitted to any legislator, legislative staff member, or to any legislative committee. This subpoena clearly included within its scope the 538 pages of disputed documents at issue in this case. The subpoena issued to Bainter in September 2012 was never amended during the course of the litigation over the documents in question. Bainter did not file a motion to quash the subpoena. He did not seek a protective order. Nor did Bainter otherwise raise any legal objection. Instead, fully two months after the issuance of the subpoena, on November 14, 2012, Bainter participated in a deposition, with an attorney present, and produced a set of -8- 733 pages of documents that he asserted were responsive to the subpoena—but that, as the trial court later determined, did not include many documents in his possession that were within the scope of the subpoena. Under deposition questioning, Bainter stated that he had “searched all of the areas that I have available to me” and was “confident” he “did a thorough search and did the best I could to produce” what was requested in the subpoena, including searching for communications with individuals he knew he had spoken to about redistricting. In further answers to deposition questioning about his role in the 2012 legislative redistricting, Bainter denied submitting any maps to the Legislature and described his involvement in the redistricting process as mere “intrigue” and an “after-the-fact interest.” Significantly, Bainter discussed his analysis of draft redistricting maps, which he described as something done out of “intrigue” or “interest,” without ever asserting that he possessed or might possess any privileged communications. Bainter’s sworn deposition did not assert, as he does now, that he wanted to submit redistricting maps as a private citizen for the Legislature’s consideration as part of the public process—even anonymously. Rather, he stated that any actions he and his company had engaged in related to the legislative redistricting were simply for their own personal and professional interest in the process. -9- Specifically, Bainter stated under oath at his deposition that his involvement in the 2012 redistricting process was an “after-the-fact interest” similar to “watching a Sunday morning talk show” or “watch[ing] the first three-quarters of a football game” because, even though “all you want to know is the outcome,” you still watch the whole game. When pressed as to the purpose being served by his company and other political consultants creating, analyzing, and sharing redistricting maps, Bainter at one point said, “Knowledge,” and at another time said, “Intrigue.” The following excerpt from Bainter’s deposition is illustrative of his sworn assertions at that time regarding the nature of his involvement in the 2012 redistricting process: Q: Do you recall Rich Johnson (sic) [another political consultant] drafting maps? A: Yeah. Q: How many? A: I don’t know. A few. Q: What did he do with them? A: Traded them back and forth with me. Q: And what else? What was the purpose of this map drawing process? A: Interest. Mostly interest on our part. When the challengers further inquired as to why he and his company were “engaged at this level of making specific changes to specific maps that . . . according to [his] testimony, were not being submitted to the legislature,” Bainter stated that he “wasn’t making any specific changes to any maps” and that he did - 10 - not “know towards what purpose” his employees were working on maps. After being asked repeatedly to answer what “professional purpose” was being served by working together with other political consultants on a map “that was never intended to be submitted to the legislature,” Bainter stated that the purpose was, “Knowledge,” and, when asked if there was “[a]ny other purpose,” he responded, “I’ve done my best.” Simply put, Bainter did not assert during his sworn deposition, as he now does, that he and Data Targeting were drafting and analyzing redistricting maps in order to petition the government on the issue of redistricting, even anonymously, and that the challengers should not be able to discover documents revealing those communications. He likewise did not assert, as he now does, that his communications with other political consultants regarding the issue of redistricting implicated his First Amendment freedom of association. Nor did he assert, as he now does, that his communications regarding redistricting—communications for which he had conducted “a thorough search”—revealed proprietary, trade secret information or information about “grassroots” networks. In fact, Bainter’s position regarding the nature of his involvement in the 2012 redistricting process has changed dramatically from the time of his deposition to the present point in the litigation. While his attorney during oral argument in this Court stated that Bainter was participating in the redistricting process “just like - 11 - any other citizen” and “submitting maps through the public portal” under a First Amendment right to petition his government, Bainter himself, under oath at his deposition, actually denied ever submitting a map through the public process. Instead, he repeatedly responded that “intrigue,” “interest,” or “[k]nowledge”—not a desire to submit maps anonymously—was the purpose of his and his firm’s creation and analysis of draft redistricting maps. In other words, despite what he now claims, Bainter’s sworn assertions at the time of his deposition were that he was simply an “observer” in the redistricting process, someone who was just watching what transpired as in the first three quarters of a football game, analyzing the maps that were submitted through the public process for his own “after-thefact” professional and personal interest, and that the purpose of his and Data Targeting’s map drawing was nothing more than “intrigue,” done for his and the company’s own “[k]nowledge.” After Bainter’s deposition, the challengers issued subpoenas duces tecum on November 16, 2012, to two Data Targeting employees that Bainter testified were involved in communications about redistricting and to the records custodian for the company, seeking the identical types of documents described in the September subpoena issued to Bainter. Again, these subpoenas sought “any document in your possession or control that relates to or discusses . . . Congressional redistricting in Florida in 2012.” - 12 - Following this second round of subpoenas, Bainter, the two employees, and the company filed a motion to quash “all subpoenas duces tecum for depositions and production of documents served” on them, asserting that the subpoenas were “premature,” “unreasonable,” “unduly burdensome,” “oppressive,” and tantamount to a “fishing expedition” for information that was “not relevant” to the case and the central issue of legislative intent in the enacted redistricting plan. Significantly for our purposes of finding waiver, the motion to quash did not include any claim of either a First Amendment or trade secrets privilege. The trial court held a hearing on the motion to quash on December 19, 2012, during which the non-parties principally focused their arguments on the claimed irrelevancy of any documents in their possession to the issues in the case and the claimed burdensome and broad nature of the discovery requests. They asked the trial court to, at the very least, limit the subpoenas “to only communications with legislative members and/or staff.” During the hearing, although not previously in their written motion, the nonparties briefly asserted that “a lot of the stuff that [Bainter] does in this business obviously is trade secret, confidential, privileged business information that the [challengers] have no interest in or no entitlement to.” Once again, however, there was no mention of any asserted First Amendment privilege—much less a particularized claim, as they now make, that the subpoenas would require the - 13 - disclosure of the names, contact information, and internal deliberations of Data Targeting employees, clients, and other like-minded individuals regarding the redistricting process, thus infringing on the non-parties’ right to freely associate with like-minded individuals in pursuit of a common goal to petition the Legislature regarding redistricting. At the December 2012 hearing on the motion to quash, and in an effort to expedite and simplify the discovery process, the trial court asked the challengers to identify with more particularity the communications they were seeking, and held another hearing on January 28, 2013, at which the trial court attempted to foster agreement between the parties as to the types of communications that could be produced.5 During this hearing, the non-parties continued to object to the discovery requests primarily on the basis of relevancy and the alleged burdensome and costly nature of the requests, but, after the trial court continually ruled against their relevancy objections, the non-parties stated that they would “make a good faith attempt to obtain the documents and research the documents, saving our objection on costs and trade secrets,” though no specific trade secrets claim was made. Still, no First Amendment privilege was ever raised or asserted in any way. 5. We commend the trial judge for the proactive and professional manner in which he conducted the proceedings regarding this discovery dispute, including his efforts to encourage the parties to reach an agreement about the scope of the subpoenas and to facilitate timely discovery. - 14 - On January 30, 2013, the trial court entered an order denying the motion to quash but limiting the scope of the subpoenas duces tecum to documents dated, generated, or created between January 1, 2010, and the present, and requiring the challengers to provide an initial list of search terms consisting of “relevant specific persons” for whom the non-parties could “conduct a specific search for documents” involving these individuals, without prejudice to the challengers to later seek additional documents—all of which were within the scope of the September and November 2012 subpoenas. The trial court subsequently held several status hearings regarding document production, in February 2013, during which the trial court continued to rule against the non-parties’ efforts to object to the alleged irrelevancy of the subpoenaed communications and continued to rule that the documents were relevant and must be produced. At no point in any of these hearings or in any filing did the non-parties assert a First Amendment privilege or make any specific claim regarding trade secrets. Eventually, the non-parties produced 112 pages of documents, which were in addition to the 733 pages of documents Bainter had produced in response to the initial September 2012 subpoena but prior to filing the motion to quash. These 112 pages of documents produced at that time consisted of communications between the non-parties and either legislators or legislative staff, but did not include any communications between the non-parties and other individuals, such as - 15 - communications with other political consultants or other third parties interested in the redistricting process—even though those communications were within the scope of the subpoenas and the trial court had continually ruled those documents to be relevant and discoverable. Based on the trial court’s denial of the motion to quash and continued rulings that the non-parties must produce all responsive communications within the scope of the subpoenas, including those with other individuals outside the Legislature concerning redistricting, the non-parties filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the First District, asserting that the trial court had “authorized discovery beyond the scope of matters reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence.” Significantly, while the non-parties stated that disclosure would risk revealing “strategic ideas and action plans for responding to campaign issues triggered by redistricting changes,” as well as “proprietary data analysis regarding redistricting intended for business purposes,” no claims of a First Amendment or trade secrets privilege were raised. Instead, the non-parties argued in their certiorari petition that the discovery requests sought documents that were irrelevant and that disclosure would cause irreparable harm to Bainter and his company. This petition for a writ of certiorari was denied, without elaboration, by the First District on July 17, 2013. Data - 16 - Targeting, Inc. v. League of Women Voters of Fla., 116 So. 3d 1266 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013). On April 22, 2013, the date production was due under the trial court’s rulings, and after the trial court and the First District had both denied the nonparties’ motions to stay, the non-parties filed a “notice of status of production of documents” and motion for an order requiring confidentiality of production and the deposit for costs of production into a court registry. In this filing, the non-parties asserted that they had “reviewed the numerous documents returned from the electronic searches [they had conducted] for responsiveness, privilege, and other matters of confidentiality” and were “in a position to produce documents” satisfying the challengers’ now seven-month-old discovery requests. (Emphasis added.) However, the non-parties stated that, “[o]utstanding from this available production,” was “a small set of documents” that were “being recorded on a privilege log” for the challengers’ review “as soon as practical.” The non-parties’ filing asserted that the documents available for production at that time “constitute[d] private business communications between Non-parties and other private, non-legislative entities,” and asked the trial court to keep all documents regarding “communication with non-legislative persons or entities” confidential, pending their then-outstanding petition for a writ of certiorari in the First District. No First Amendment privilege was asserted—the words “First - 17 - Amendment” did not even appear in the filing, despite the assertion that the nonparties had reviewed all documents for privileges—and no documents were actually produced. In response to this notice, the challengers filed a motion for contempt and sanctions, contending that the non-parties had “purposefully, knowingly and willfully” failed to comply with the trial court’s order requiring production of the documents by April 22, 2013. At a hearing on this motion on May 28, 2013, the challengers asked the trial court to, among other things, issue “an order that there has been a waiver of any and all objections, confidentiality, privilege and otherwise.” The trial court asked the non-parties to assert what “cat out of the bag” privilege they were claiming and also inquired as to what was “confidential” about the documents. Even though the non-parties’ notice stated that all the documents had been reviewed for privileges by that time, their response to the trial court was that the documents were “irrelevant to the entire case,” and, when pressed by the trial court as to the privileged nature of the documents, the non-parties stated that “the privileged nature is proprietary business information. Some of it’s trade secrets.” Once again, we reiterate that at no time was the claim raised that the communications were protected under the First Amendment. The trial court did - 18 - observe, in reference to the cursory trade secrets assertion, that it “probably . . . could rule that [the non-parties] waived their claim for any kind of privilege” since they had failed for over eight months to assert any privilege in response to the initial discovery requests, but stated that the court was “going to wait and see.” At this May 28 hearing, the trial court held the non-parties in contempt of its prior order requiring production of the documents by April 22 and gave them until the day after the hearing to produce any non-privileged and non-confidential documents to the challengers and to also produce a privilege log, along with the withheld documents to the court for an in-camera review. In addition, the trial court awarded the challengers their attorney’s fees for “not just this motion” because they “shouldn’t have had to have been here for a lot of stuff.” The trial court’s subsequent written order memorializing the hearing, entered on May 31, 2013, granted in part the challengers’ motion for contempt and sanctions, holding the non-parties in contempt of the order requiring production of the documents by April 22 and awarding the challengers “their reasonable expenses, including attorneys’ fees, incurred in obtaining the document discovery” from the non-parties. The trial court explicitly reserved ruling on “the confidentiality or privilege of any documents pending the completion of its incamera review.” - 19 - The day after the hearing at which the non-parties were orally held in contempt and ordered to pay attorney’s fees, on May 29, 2013, the non-parties filed a notice of producing documents in response to the subpoenas duces tecum of September and November 2012. In that notice, the non-parties maintained, despite the trial court’s consistent rulings on relevancy, that the subject documents were “wholly irrelevant” to the case and were being produced “only to avoid sanctions.” The non-parties produced at that time an additional 166 pages of documents and, contrary to their prior assertion that only “a small set” of documents was being withheld, submitted a cursory privilege log indicating that they were withholding another 1,833 pages of documents—for the first time asserting that these documents were being withheld on the bases of “right of privacy” under article I, section 23, of the Florida Constitution;6 “freedom of association” under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution; and as “trade secret[s].” In other words, while the non-parties claimed in their May 29 motion for a protective order that the “First Amendment’s associational privilege” applied to the disputed documents, this was the first mention of that privilege during the protracted litigation over these same documents. This motion was filed almost six 6. The trial court immediately rejected the asserted “right of privacy” as a basis to preclude disclosure of the documents, and the non-parties did not challenge this finding or make any arguments on appeal concerning this claim. - 20 - months after the filing of their motion to quash the subpoenas and after Bainter asserted during his deposition that he had conducted “a thorough search” for responsive communications. It was filed more than eight months after the initial discovery requests. And it was filed only after the non-parties were held in contempt of court and ordered to pay attorney’s fees. In moving for a protective order and an in-camera review of the documents, the non-parties stated for the first time that requiring disclosure of any of the 1,833 pages of withheld documents “would have a chilling effect on [their] ability to participate in the legislative process.” Many more months of hearings were subsequently held on the disputed documents, including referral at one point to a special master and the trial court’s own in-camera review. At a hearing on April 29, 2014, in anticipation of the upcoming trial in the underlying case, the trial court orally stated that it was “prepared to rule on some documents that [the court] took to review in camera,” including the 1,833 pages of disputed Data Targeting documents. The trial court stated that it was “doing the balancing” required under the qualified First Amendment associational privilege test “of the need for the information, how relevant, how important is it, and also to what extent does it invade upon the exercise of that First Amendment.” The trial court then proceeded to orally list the 538 page numbers of the disputed documents that were, in the trial court’s - 21 - estimation, discoverable—conditioning the release of these 538 pages of documents within the following week “to the plaintiffs’ attorney and their staff and experts, but not to share with your clients or any third person unless and until it’s utilized some way in these proceedings. So, confidential.” When asked by the non-parties whether the in-camera review also encompassed an analysis for trade secrets protection, the trial court responded affirmatively that this claim was also considered and rejected. The trial court’s subsequent May 2, 2014, order memorializing its oral ruling at the hearing likewise explained that the trial court had “performed the balancing test required” in evaluating the qualified First Amendment associational privilege claim and had “also considered” the assertion of trade secrets protection, and that based on the trial court’s “review, balancing and analysis,” the qualified First Amendment associational privilege should yield as to 538 pages of the disputed documents. In response to the trial court’s May 2 order, which permitted the documents to remain confidential and ordered the documents not to be publicly disclosed at that time, the non-parties produced these 538 pages of documents to the challengers. However, after the trial court, on May 15, 2014, subsequently denied the non-parties’ motion to close the courtroom to the public during any use of the documents at trial, the non-parties appealed the trial court’s discovery rulings to the First District, which eventually passed through the appeal to this Court. See - 22 - Non-Parties v. League of Women Voters of Fla., 39 Fla. L. Weekly D1300, 2014 WL 2770013, at  (Fla. 1st DCA June 19, 2014). Therefore, we now consider this case as one of direct appellate review of the trial court’s May 2014 discovery orders under our jurisdiction provided in article V, section 3(b)(5), of the Florida Constitution.7