NACDL News: DOJ Persuades DC Circuit to Keep Federal Criminal Discovery Blue Book From Being Disclos

On July 19, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — Circuit Judge Srinivasan and Senior Circuit Judges Sentelle and Edwards — issued its decision in National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers v. U.S. Department of Justice Executive Office for United States Attorneys and U.S. Department of Justice. The decision upheld the lower court’s and the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) denial of NACDL’s Freedom of Information Act request that DOJ release to the public its Federal Criminal Discovery Blue Book, finding that the Blue Book is attorney work product that was prepared to protect DOJ from litigation and therefore it is protected from disclosure.