United States DC Circuit

In a suit seeking declaratory relief requiring the office of Vice President Richard Cheney (OVP) to preserve certain records under the Presidential Records Act, defendant's petition for mandamus relief from a district court order allowing the depositions of two OVP employees is denied where: 1) the district court was not required to consider threshold grounds for dismissal before considering plaintiffs' discovery request; and 2) the relief sought was appropriately limited to following up on facts defendant had itself put into evidence; but 3) the deposition of Cheney's chief of staff would constitute an unwarranted impairment of the functioning of OVP, and substitution of a different OVP employee was warranted.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/31/2008
• Published 10/31/2008

Judges

• PER CURIAM:, Before:  GINSBURG, TATEL, and GRIFFITH, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States DC Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Gregory G. Katsas, Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Jonathan F. Cohn, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and Mark B. Stern, Michael S. Raab, and Mark R. Freeman, Attorneys, were on the petition for writ of mandamus and motion to stay pending proceedings and the reply., Anne L. Weismann, Melanie Sloan, and David L. Sobel were on the response to the petition for writ of mandamus and motion to stay pending proceedings.