CAFC Rejects Amicus' Bid for Access to Confidential Information in ITC Case
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 14 denied court-appointed amicus Andrew Dhuey access to confidential filings in an appeal on the International Trade Commission's treatment of business proprietary information. Judge Evan Wallach said Dhuey "has not shown" that access to this information is "necessary for him to file his proposed amicus brief." The judge said the motion is "denied without prejudice to Mr. Dhuey raising arguments" on "why access to particular confidential information cited in the United States’ brief is needed to assist the court" (In Re United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1566).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The appeal concerns Court of International Trade Judge Stephen Vaden's refusal to redact certain BPI in his 2023 decision on an antidumping duty and countervailing duty injury case. The judge found that all the information alleged to be proprietary either hadn't been properly bracketed by the ITC during the trial or was publicly available (see 2401090046).
The Federal Circuit appointed Dhuey, a patent attorney, to serve as amicus to defend Vaden's decision, upon Dhuey's request, seeing as no other party was going to back the trade court's ruling (see 2502200017). Amicus then sought access to the confidential information in the case, prompting opposition from the ITC. The commission said Congress established a "comprehensive statutory scheme" relating to BPI that only permits limited disclosure to "interested parties" that are parties to ITC proceedings (see 2503310054).