Opinion ID: 511548
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Law Enforcement Investigatory Privilege

Text: 18 The SEC claims the law enforcement investigatory interrogatory privilege to three of appellant's direct questions. To sustain the claim, three requirements must be met: (1) there must be a formal claim of privilege by the head of the department having control over the requested information; (2) assertion of the privilege must be based on actual personal consideration by that official; and (3) the information for which the privilege is claimed must be specified, with an explanation why it properly falls within the scope of the privilege. Black v. Sheraton Corp. of America, 564 F.2d 531, 542-43 (D.C.Cir.1977); Friedman v. Bache Halsey Stuart Shields, Inc., 738 F.2d 1336, 1341-42 (D.C.Cir.1984). These conditions ensure that the privilege is presented in a deliberate, considered, and reasonably specific manner. Friedman, 738 F.2d at 1342. 19 As a threshold matter, appellant asserts that the privilege applies only to disclosure of documents from law enforcement investigatory files, not to testimony about the information obtained in the files. The Court disagrees. It make little sense to protect the actual files from disclosure while forcing the government to testify about their contents. The public interest in safeguarding the integrity of on-going civil and criminal investigations is the same in both situations. The privilege may be asserted to protect testimony about or other disclosure of the contents of law enforcement investigatory files. 20 The SEC has met the requirements for asserting the privilege. The decision to claim the privilege was made by the agency's Commissioners, who personally reviewed the deposition questions at issue. Declaration of Jonathan G. Katz, Secretary of the Securities and Exchange Commission, August 24, 1987, App. 118-21. The Commission also specified the information to which the privilege applied. Id. at 118-20. 21 The Commission further explained that disclosure of the information would jeopardize on-going investigations by prematurely revealing facts and investigatory materials to potential subjects of those investigations. Id. at 120. In support of this contention, the SEC submitted a lengthy declaration detailing the effect disclosure would have on its ongoing Wall Street investigation. Declaration of John H. Sturc, Associate Director of the SEC Division of Enforcement, August 20, 1987, App. 73, 85-6. In view of appellant's broadly-worded deposition questions, the SEC has asserted the privilege with sufficient specificity and particularity. 3 22 However, the law enforcement investigatory privilege is qualified. The public interest in nondisclosure must be balanced against the need of a particular litigant for access to the privileged information. Black, 564 F.2d at 545; Friedman, 738 F.2d at 1341. The process of identifying and weighing the competing interests cannot be avoided. Friedman, 738 F.2d at 1342. This Circuit has cited the list contained in Frankenhauser v. Rizzo, 59 F.R.D. 339 (E.D.Pa.1973), as illustrative of the factors the district court must consider: 23 (1) the extent to which disclosure will thwart governmental processes by discouraging citizens from giving the government information; (2) the impact upon persons who have given information of having their identities disclosed; (3) the degree to which governmental self-evaluation and consequent program improvement will be chilled by disclosure; (4) whether the information sought is factual data or evaluative summary; (5) whether the party seeking discovery is an actual or potential defendant in any criminal proceeding either pending or reasonably likely to follow from the incident in question; (6) whether the police investigation has been completed; (7) whether any interdepartmental disciplinary proceedings have arisen or may arise from the investigation; (8) whether the plaintiff's suit is non-frivolous and brought in good faith; (9) whether the information sought is available through other discovery or from other sources: (10) the importance of the information sought to the plaintiff's case. 24 Id. at 344; Friedman, 738 F.2d at 1342-43. 25 The District Court's order in this case does not show engagement in this essential balancing process. Although a district court has considerable leeway in weighing the different factors, Multi-Piece Rim Products, 653 F.2d at 679, the failure to balance at all requires remand to the District Court to consider the respective interests of appellant and the SEC in the information protected by the law enforcement investigatory privilege. 26 On remand the District Court is not required, sua sponte, to consider possible modifications of appellant's discovery request. When the privilege is asserted for documents, as distinct from testimony, the physical nature of the materials requested permits the court to consider application of the privilege to individual files. See Northrop, 751 F.2d at 403 (district court must give appropriate consideration to modifying the subpoena for documents to accommodate the interests of the parties); Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45(b)(1). However, written deposition questions do not lend themselves to modification by the Court. The Court has no duty to rewrite appellant's questions to make them acceptable. Appellant, of course, may redraft its questions to meet the objections of the government and concerns of the Court. 4 Indeed, this may be a wiser course and lead to appellant's obtaining the desired information more rapidly than by the lengthy process of appeal.