Judge Scheindlin Withdraws Opinion in Nat’l Day Laborer Org. Network v. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency

Nat’l Day Laborer Org. Network v. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, 10 Civ. 3488 (SAS) (S.D.N.Y. June 17, 2011)

On February 7, 2011, Judge Scheindlin issued an opinion in which she concluded that “metadata maintained by the agency as a part of an electronic record is presumptively producible under FOIA, unless the agency demonstrates that such metadata is not ‘readily reproducible.’”  (See a summary of that opinion here.)  The opinion also provided substantial guidance regarding the “minimum fields of metadata that should accompany any production of a significant collection of ESI."  That opinion has now been withdrawn.

The text of the Order withdrawing the opinion is short, and is provided below:

This court has been informed that the parties have recently resolved their dispute regarding the form and format in which records will be produced by defendants in this Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.  In the interests of justice, this Court now believes that it would be prudent to withdraw the opinion it issued on February 7, 2011 (Docket #41).  I do so because, as subsequent submissions have shown, that decision was not based on a full and developed record.  By withdrawing the decision, it is the intent of this Court that the decision shall have no precedential value in this lawsuit or in any other lawsuit.

The Court also withdraws its Supplemental Order dated February 14, 2011 (Docket # 50).

A copy of the opinion is also available here.