Court Opinion

ID: 9498888
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:30:37.46708+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:07.949277
License: Public Domain

RAWLINSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. My primary disagreement with my colleagues’ resolution of this case is their characterization of the pivotal issue as one of reciprocal discovery, because I see this case as involving the agency’s right to control the disclosure of information within its custody.
As the majority opinion relates, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has promulgated a regulation that requires one seeking official information from the agency to describe, in writing, “the nature and rélevance of the information sought.” 6 C.F.R. § 5.45(a). The regulation was promulgated, not as a discovery device, but as a means to control the flow of information from the agency and ensure that no information was disclosed that should have remained secreted. The regulation cites United States ex rel. Touhy v. Ragen, 340 U.S. 462, 71 S.Ct. 416, 95 L.Ed. 417 (1951), as supporting authority. The majority opinion acknowledges, as it must, that Ra-gen upheld a Department of Justice regulation prohibiting its employees from responding to a subpoena absent permission. See Majority Opinion, p. 1230, n. 6. The majority opinion then converts the issue into one involving a discovery request, although neither the parties nor the district court viewed it as such.
Discovery in criminal cases is governed by a detailed, well-defined, specific set of rules. See Fed. R. Cr. P. 16. The evolvement of discovery in criminal cases is reflected in the Advisory Committee Notes explaining the various amendments to Rule 16. See id., Advisory Committee Notes. I would not blithely transpose a regulation governing release of documents into a non-sanctioned amendment of Rule *123316. See United States v. Alvarez, 358 F.3d 1194, 1207 n. 8 (9th Cir.2004) (confirming that Rule 16 governs discovery in criminal cases and expressly excludes discovery of “statements made by prospective government witnesses”) (citation omitted).
This is not a case where Bahamonde made a discovery request to the government which was improperly refused. Had such been the case, the federal rules provide the district court with an array of options to compel compliance. See, e.g. Fed. R. Cr. P. 16(d). Rather, in this case, counsel for Bahamonde disregarded a regulation, of which he was well aware, to call a witness, not to conduct pre-trial discovery.
In my view, because this is not a discovery case, Wardius v. Oregon, 412 U.S. 470, 93 S.Ct. 2208, 37 L.Ed.2d 82 (1973), does not control the outcome. Rather, this ease is more akin to United States v. Allen, 554 F.2d 398 (10th Cir.1977). In Allen, as in this case, the defendant made no effort to comply with the regulation requiring similar advance notice and summary of the desired testimony. In upholding the trial court’s decision declining to compel the testimony, the Tenth Circuit held:
Our record shows no effort by defendant to submit the affidavit or statement summarizing the testimony desired so that the Department could consider the request and determine whether to grant permission for the testimony. In view of this, we feel that defendant is in no position to claim error in the court’s refusal to require testimony by the prosecutor. We feel that the regulation controlling such disclosures by Department of Justice employees is valid.
Id. at 407 (citations omitted) (emphasis added).
A similar result is warranted in this case. Bahamonde was not requesting pretrial discovery. He was seeking to call a witness without meeting the requirements of a regulation of which he was indisputably aware. I would follow the ruling of the Tenth Circuit in Allen and hold that the district court acted well within its discretion in excluding the testimony. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.