Plaintiffs Have Standing in White House E-Mail Case

Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., of the D.C. District denied the administration's motion to dismiss in the case over the White House's sloppy record-keeping of its e-mails.  He ruled, among other things, that the plaintiffs have satisfied Article III standing requirements.  The NYT reports here.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and The National Security Archive sued the Executive Office of the President over its failure to comply with record-keeping requirements under the Federal Records Act and the APA, which resulted in millions of missing e-mails.  CREW collects the litigation documents and more here; The National Security Archive page is here.  (Just browse these pages to get a sense of magnitude of this issue.  Thank you, CREW, National Security Archive.)

Most of Judge Kennedy's opinion deals with statutory questions, but he analyzes the plaintiffs' standing--and rules in their favor--on pages 13 to 20.  You might also want to take a look at the complaint; pages 14 to 22 of the administration's motion to dismiss; and pages 22 to 28 of plaintiffs' opposition. 

Taken together these materials make a nice case study on Article III standing in a current, interesting, and important case.

SDS