Stamboulieh Law, PLLC

P.O. Box 4008, Madison, MS 39130 | (601) 852-3440 | stephen@sdslaw.us

January 28, 2020

Office of the Attorney General Via Online Portal

Douglas Hibbard
Chief, Initial Request Staff
Office of Information Policy
Department of Justice
Suite 11050
1425 New York Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
Fax: (202) 514-1009

RE: Freedom of Information Act Request

Dear FOIA Officer:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552. I
represent journalist David Codrea1 in this request.
The United States filed a Statement of Interest in the case J. Michael Brown, et al. v. Jones
County Junior College, et al., Civil Action No. 2:19-cv-00127-KS-MTP [Docket 23], pending in
the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Eastern Division.2
The Statement of Interest states:
Imagine a society in which a citizen must petition the government for permission
to meet with his fellow citizens. Imagine further that such requests must be made
at least three days in advance of the requested meeting, and that the government
has unbridled discretion to determine who may meet with whom, and about what
they might speak. Such extreme preconditions to speech might not be out of place
in Oceania, the fictional dystopian superstate in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-
Four. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, however, ensures
that preconditions like these have no place in the United States of America.

1
David Codrea writes for Ammoland Shooting Sports News. See
https://www.ammoland.com/author/david-codrea/.
2
A copy of the Statement of Interest can be found online at:
https://www.scribd.com/document/439394219/Free-Speech-DOF-Filing#from_embed
Office of the Attorney General
Douglas Hibbard
Chief, Initial Request Staff
January 28, 2020

Further, the Statement of Interest states that the College’s “speech policies do not pass First
Amendment muster in at least two major respects: they operate as a prior restraint on all student
speech and contain no exception for individuals or small groups; and they further grant school
officials unbridled discretion to determine with students may speak, and about what they might
speak.” The United States further states that the Attorney General enforces 34 U.S.C. § 12601
“which provides in relevant part that governmental authorities and their agents may not ‘engage
in a pattern or practice by law enforcement officers… that deprives persons of rights, privileges,
or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States’” and that the
Attorney General “may in a civil action obtain the appropriate equitable and declaratory relief to
eliminate the pattern or practice.”
Because the information sought is believed to be with your agency, Mr. Codrea hereby
requests the following information for the time period of January 2014 until present:
• Any and all Statements of Interest filed in lawsuits dealing with and/or related to
the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution; and

• Any and all documents and records related to enforcement of the Second
Amendment via 34 U.S.C. § 12601; and
• Any and all documents and records related to deliberations or discussions,
including emails, correspondence or memoranda, related to protecting and defending the Second
Amendment.
Mr. Codrea is willing to pay up to $100 for the processing of this request. Mr. Codrea also
requests a fee waiver as these materials are greatly in the public interest and because the requested
records will be distributed free of charge on the internet and will increase the public’s awareness
on the Department of Justice’s and the Attorney General’s intervention and/or filing of Statements
of Interests in matters of constitutional cases. Additionally, because Mr. Codrea would be
considered “media”, he is entitled to a fee waiver. See Edmonds Inst. v. DOJ, 460 F. Supp.2d 63,
72 (D.D.C. 2006); Votehemp, Inc. v. DEA, 237 F. Supp. 2d 55, 58 (D.D.C. 2002).
Pursuant to FOIA, Mr. Codrea anticipates your response within 20 (twenty) business days.
Should you require additional information, I can be contacted at 601-852-3440 or via email at
stephen@sdslaw.us.
Best regards,

cc: David Codrea