Judge Rejects Office’s Attempt To Apply Consultant Corollary Exception To Drafts

Mealey's (February 12, 2016, 12:56 PM EST) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Feb. 10 denied the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) request to apply the consultant corollary exception of the deliberative process privilege to a five-page draft of a letter that was shared with a Rutgers University professor who believes that global warming has spurred a phenomenon known as the “polar vortex,” finding that the professor could not be likened to a government employee and that her opinion was not being sought to assist the office with forming a policy position (Competitive Enterprise Institute v. Office of Science and Technology Policy, No. 14-cv-01806, D. D.C.; 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15893)....