Mark P. Schlefer v. United States of America

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• noting that the attorney-client privilege protects only confidential information provided by an agency client that is about the agency, or involves the agency
• holding that the privilege does not extend to opinions of the Chief Counsel of the Maritime Administration interpreting statutes the agency administers because they “are authoritative Agency decisions in the cases to which they are addressed and ... also guide subsequent Agency rulings”
• noting that the court would have employed deferential rather than de novo review had the district court’s FOIA decision turned on “resolution of a fact controversy” rather than summary judgment
• holding that opinions interpreting statutes administered by the agency are not subject to the deliberative process privilege because they “are authoritative Agency decisions in the cases to which they are addressed and . . . also guide subsequent Agency rulings”
• noting flow of agency record “from ‘subordinate’ to ‘superior’ on an agency ladder” “more ‘deliberative’ in character”
• the privilege “operates when (1) the communication from attorney to client is confidential, and (2) the communication is based on confidential information provided by the client.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).