Washington D.C. – The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a ruling by the District Court in a lawsuit Cause of Action Institute (CoA Institute) filed against Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Archivist David Ferriero seeking to enforce their duties under the Federal Records Act as they relate to retrieval of Hillary Clinton’s emails.  CoA Institute Vice President John Vecchione argued the case, which was consolidated with a similar case filed by Judicial Watch. (Audio of oral arguments can be found in its entirety here)

The lower court had dismissed the case as moot because that court believed the State Department had recovered enough of the records and taken enough action short of initiating action through the Attorney General. The D.C. Circuit Court held that because the statute requires the agencies to reach out to the Attorney General to seek record recovery, and because the State Department has not done so, CoA Institute and Judicial Watch have not received everything to which they are entitled.

CoA Institute Vice President John Vecchione: “The D.C. Circuit has reinforced the lesson that the government is bound to follow the law and that measures short of what the law requires to recover government documents cannot be substituted as ‘good enough’.”

Read the opinion here.