SMITH v. OBAMA (2016)

United States Court of Appeals,Ninth Circuit.

Anna J. SMITH, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Barack OBAMA, in his official capacity as President of the United States of America; James R. Clapper, in his official capacity as Director of National Intelligence; Michael S. Rogers, in his official capacity as Director of the National Security Agency and Chief of the Central Security Service; Ashton Carter, in his official capacity as Secretary of Defense; Loretta E. Lynch, Attorney General; James B. Comey, in his official capacity as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,* Defendants–Appellees.

No. 14–35555.

Decided: March 22, 2016

Before MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS, M. MARGARET McKEOWN, and RICHARD C. TALLMAN, Circuit Judges.

Peter J. Smith IV (argued) and Lucas T. Malek, Smith & Malek, PLLC, Coeur d'Alene, ID; Cindy Cohn, David Greene, Hanni Fakhoury and Andrew Crocker, Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, CA; Jameel Jaffer, Alex Abdo and Patrick Toomey, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, New York, NY; Richard Alan Eppink, American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho Foundation, Boise, ID, for Plaintiff–Appellant. H. Thomas Byron III (argued); Joyce R. Branda, Acting Assistant Attorney General; Benjamin C. Mizer, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General; Wendy J. Olson, United States Attorney; Douglas N. Letter and Henry C. Whitaker, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Defendants–Appellees. Paul M. Smith, Michael T. Borgia, Jenner & Block LLP, Washington, D.C.; Michael Davidson, Washington, D.C.; Kate A. Martin, Center for National Security Studies, Washington, D.C.; Joseph Onek, The Raben Group, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae Center for National Security Studies. Marc Rotenberg, Alan Butler, Julia Horwitz and Jeramie Scott, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington, D.C., for Amici Curiae Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Thirty–Three Technical Experts and Legal Scholars. Catherine R. Gellis, Sausalito, CA; Michael H. Page and Joseph C. Gratz, Durie Tangri LLP, San Francisco, CA, for Amicus Curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Thomas R. Burke, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, San Francisco, CA; Edward J. Davis, Linda Steinman and Lacy H. Koonce, III, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, New York, NY, for Amicus Curiae PEN American Center, Inc. Bruce Brown, Katie Townsend and Hannah Bloch–Wehba, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Arlington, VA; Kevin M. Goldberg, Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, PLC, Arlington, VA; Rachel Matteo–Boehm, Bryan Cave LLP, San Francisco, CA; David M. Giles, The E.W. Scripps Company, Cincinatti, OH; Peter Scheer, First Amendment Coalition, San Rafael, CA; Lynn Oberlander, First Look Media, Inc., New York, NY; Barbara W. Wall, Gannett Co., Inc., McLean, VA; Karole Morgan–Prager and Juan Cornejo, The McClatchy Company, Sacramento, CA; Charles D. Tobin, Holland & Knight LLP, Washington, D.C.; Mickey H. Osterreicher, Buffalo, NY; Jennifer A. Borg, North Jersey Media Group Inc., Woodland Park, NJ; Michael Kovaka, Washington, D.C.; Kathleen A. Kirby, Wiley Rein LLP, Washington, D.C.; John B. Kennedy, James A. McLaughlin and Kalea S. Clark, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., for Amici Curiae Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 17 Media Organizations. Charles S. Sims, Proskauer Rose LLP, New York, NY, for Amici Curiae Senator Ron Wyden, Senator Mark Udall and Senator Martin Heinrich.