DOJ demanded every scintilla of associated evidence of wrongthink, from notes and research to communications with legislators and other interested parties.
Eagle Forum called on the court to quash the subpoena, arguing not only that complying with it would be excessively costly and complex and that its work was irrelevant to the case — it also threatened Americans’ most fundamental rights.
Eagle Forum’s volunteer general counsel, Margaret Clarke, said that in 45 years advocating for legislation, neither her organization nor its affiliates had ever been subpoenaed for their work. If enforced, she wrote in an affidavit, the subpoena “will have a chilling effect on historically protected Constitutional rights and legislative advocacy.”
The group’s executive director, Becky Gerritson, came to national fame for her impassioned 2013 testimony before Congress about the IRS’s targeting of the Wetumpka Tea Party she then led.
Now combating the apparent malice of another federal agency, she wrote in an affidavit that DOJ’s subpoena was “a form of government harassment and retaliation for simple communications with the public” and “elected officials to carry out our lawful purpose.”
Amid Eagle Forum’s objection to the subpoena and blowback from numerous supportive organizations via amicus briefs, the DOJ backed down. In early October, it told the court it had “narrowed” its mass of requests to one: medical studies or literature referenced in a single section of the law.