National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights v. City of New York

194 F.R.D. 88, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4448, 2000 WL 358385
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedApril 7, 2000
DocketNo. 99 Civ. 1695(SAS)
StatusPublished
Cited by69 cases

This text of 194 F.R.D. 88 (National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights v. City of New York) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights v. City of New York, 194 F.R.D. 88, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4448, 2000 WL 358385 (S.D.N.Y. 2000).

Opinion

[92]*92 OPINION AND ORDER

SCHEINDLIN, District Judge.

I. Introduction

Plaintiffs are suing defendants for the alleged unconstitutional practices of the Street Crime Unit (“SCU”) of engaging in suspi-cionless stops and frisks of minorities, particularly young black and Hispanic men. Defendants now move under Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for a protective order shielding certain documents from discovery on the ground that they are protected from disclosure under the deliberative process and/or law enforcement privilege. In particular, defendants seek to withhold the documents corresponding to the following entries in defendants’ privilege log: 6, 7, 11, 13, 46, 57, 60, 61, 62, 68, 69, 70, 76, 83 and 86. See Privilege Log, attached as Exhibit B to the Declaration of Lisa S.J. Yee, defendants’ attorney, in Support of De-' fendants’ Motion for a Protective Order, sworn to February 16, 2000 (‘Yee Dec!.”). For the following reasons, defendants’ motion is granted in part and denied in part.

II. Discussion

A. Legal Standards

1. Scope of Discovery

“In federal actions, discovery should be broad, and all relevant materials which are reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence should be [discoverable].” Morrissey v. City of New York, 171 F.R.D. 85, 88 (S.D.N.Y.1997) (citing Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1)); see also United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 709, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974). Given the breadth of discovery in federal actions, all of the documents listed above are relevant— whether they are discoverable is a different matter. Because plaintiffs have asserted federal constitutional claims in this action, defendants’ claims of privilege, including deliberative process and law enforcement privilege, are governed by federal common law. See Burka v. New York City Transit Auth., 110 F.R.D. 660, 663-64 (S.D.N.Y.1986) (citation omitted). These privileges are, however, qualified and as such must be balanced against a litigant’s substantial need for the information in issue. See U.S. v. Davis, 131 F.R.D. 391, 395 (S.D.N.Y.1990) (law enforcement privilege); Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Fox, 94 Civ. 8424, 1998 WL 158671, at *5 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 6, 1998) (deliberative process privilege); see also Borchers v. Commercial Union Assurance Co., 874 F.Supp. 78, 80 (S.D.N.Y.1995) (citations omitted).

2. Deliberative Process Privilege

There are two requirements for invocation of the deliberative process privilege: the document asserted to be privileged must be both “predecisional” and “deliberative.” See Hopkins v. United States Dep’t of Housing and Urban Dev., 929 F.2d 81, 84 (2d Cir.1991). A document is predecisional when it is “ ‘prepared in order to assist an agency decisionmaker in arriving at [her] decision.’ ” Id. (quoting Renegotiation Bd. v. Grumman Aircraft Eng’g Corp., 421 U.S. 168, 95 S.Ct. 1491, 44 L.Ed.2d 57 (1975)). Thus, the privilege protects “recommendations, draft documents, proposals, suggestions, and other subjective documents which reflect the personal opinions of the writer rather than the policy of the agency.” Grand Central Partnership, Inc. v. Cuomo, 166 F.3d 473 (2d Cir.1999) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Other courts have held that a document will be considered predecisional if the agency can “(i) pinpoint the specific agency decision to which the document correlates, (ii) establish that its author prepared the document for the purpose of assisting the agency official charged with making the agency decision, and (iii) verify that the document precedes, in temporal sequence, the decision to which it relates.” Providence Journal Co. v. United States Dep’t of the Army, 981 F.2d 552, 557 (1st Cir.1992) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

A document is deliberative when it is “ ‘actually ... related to the process by which policies are formulated.’” Hopkins, 929 F.2d at 84 (quoting Jordan v. United States Dep’t of Justice, 591 F.2d 753, 774 (D.C.Cir.1978) (en banc)). Other courts have looked at whether the document “(i) formed an essential link in a specified consultative [93]*93process, (ii) ‘reflect[s] the personal opinions of the writer rather than the policy of the agency,’ and (iii) if released, would ‘inaccurately reflect or prematurely disclose the views of the agency.’ ” Providence Journal Co., 981 F.2d at 559 (quoting National Wildlife Fed’n v. U.S. Forest Serv., 861 F.2d 1114, 1118-19 (9th Cir.1988)). Thus, the privilege “ ‘focus[es] on documents reflecting advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations comprising part of a process by which governmental decisions and policies are formulated.’” Hopkins, 929 F.2d at 84 (quoting N.L.R.B. v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 150, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 44 L.Ed.2d 29 (1975)) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). “The privilege does not, as a general matter, extend to purely factual material.” Id. (citation omitted).

3. Law Enforcement Privilege

The purpose of the law enforcement privilege is to “prevent disclosure of law enforcement techniques and procedures, to preserve the confidentiality of sources, to protect witness and law enforcement personnel, to safeguard the privacy of individuals involved in an investigation, and otherwise to prevent interference with an investigation.” In re Dep’t of Investigation of the City of New York, 856 F.2d 481, 484 (2d Cir.1988) (citations omitted). “[T]he privilege is designed not only to facilitate investigations, but also to protect individuals whose reputation may be damaged by disclosure of investigative leads or statements from witnesses developed during the investigation.” Id. at 486.

B. Documents in Dispute

As stated earlier, the documents defendants seek to withhold correspond to certain entry numbers in defendants’ privilege log. These documents have been submitted for in camera review. Based on that review and a review of the materials submitted in support of the assertion of the privileges, the following constitute the rulings of this Court.

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194 F.R.D. 88, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4448, 2000 WL 358385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-congress-for-puerto-rican-rights-v-city-of-new-york-nysd-2000.