In Re United States

Background

This case comes from five related lawsuits brought in the Northern District of California by plaintiffs who challenged the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security’s decision to rescind the DACA program by March 5, 2018. The Acting Secretary said she relied in part on the Attorney General’s view that DACA was unlawful. The Government filed a 256-page administrative record (about 200 pages are published court opinions). On October 17 the district court ordered the Government to turn over many additional DACA-related documents, and the Government sought review in the Ninth Circuit and then this Court.

Reasoning

The Court granted review, vacated the Ninth Circuit’s decision, and remanded. The Court explained that the district court should have stayed its order to complete the record while first resolving the Government’s threshold arguments—specifically whether the decision to rescind DACA is unreviewable because it is committed to agency discretion and whether the Immigration and Nationality Act bars the district court from hearing the claims. The Court directed the lower courts to consider those questions first, allowed the district court to certify an interlocutory appeal if appropriate, and said lower courts should only order narrower additions to the record if necessary. The Court also held that the district court may not force disclosure of documents the Government claims are privileged without first giving the Government a chance to argue privilege.

Real world impact

The ruling limits immediate broad document disclosure in the DACA rescission dispute and sends the case back to lower courts to address whether the rescission decision can be reviewed and whether the courts have authority to hear the claims. The opinion does not decide the merits of whether rescinding DACA was lawful, so the dispute continues in the lower courts.