Surrender on Subpoena

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler has backed down from a court showdown with the ACLU of Maryland and the Maryland Green Party. Gansler agreed late last month to withdraw a subpoena demanding emails and confidential work-product information related to a Green Party lawsuit contained on the computer of one of the Green Party's lawyers. The subpoena stems from the refusal of the Maryland State Board of Elections to pay approximately $500,000 in legal fees after the Maryland Green Party successfully challenged a ballot-access issue in 2003 before the state's highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals. That court recently agreed to hear arguments about the quashing of the subpoena before Gansler withdrew it last month. ACLU and Green Party attorneys argued the subpoena would have undermined both the attorney-client privilege and the work-product doctrine and would discourage civil-rights lawyers from taking cases. For more background on the case prior to Gansler's decision, see an article from Legal Times' sister publication, The National Law Journal.