United States Second Circuit

In a civil right action brought by protesters and others who were arrested at the 2004 Republican National Convention (RNC), the City of New York's petition for a writ of mandamus vacating the district court's order granting plaintiffs' motion to compel the production of roughly 1800 pages of confidential "Field Reports" prepared by undercover officers of the New York City Police Department who were investigating security threats in the months before the RNC, the petition is granted where: 1) a writ of mandamus was the only "adequate means" for the City to seek review of the district court's order and thereby prevent the irreparable harm that the City - and thus the public - would suffer from the disclosure of the Field Reports; 2) because the Second Circuit had never before addressed the circumstances in which the law enforcement privilege must yield to a party's need for discovery, the petition presented novel and significant questions of law whose resolution would aid in the administration of justice; 3) after determining that the law enforcement privilege applied, the district court indisputably erred in failing to apply a strong presumption against lifting the privilege; 4) the district court indisputably erred in failing to require that plaintiffs show a "compelling need" for the Field Reports; and 5) the district court made a clearly erroneous assessment of the evidence when it found that plaintiffs' need for the Field Reports outweighed the public's interest in their secrecy.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/19/2010
• Decided 06/09/2010
• Published 06/09/2010

Judges

• JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge:, Before CABRANES, WESLEY, and LIVINGSTON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Celeste L. Koeleveld, Executive Assistant Corporation Counsel (Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, Tonya Jenerette, Peter G. Farrell, of counsel), Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, New York, NY, for Defendants-Petitioners., Christopher Dunn, (Arthur Eisenberg and Mohammed Gangat, on the brief), New York Civil Liberties Union Foundation, New York, NY, for Plaintiffs-Respondents, Dinler, et al., and Schiller, et al., Jonathan C. Moore, (Clare Norins, on the brief), Beldock Levin & Hoffman LLP, New York, NY, for Plaintiffs-Respondents MacNamara and putative class members.