ELR Citation: 46 ELR 20162
No(s). 4:16-CV-49-K (N.D. Tex. Oct 13, 2016) (Kinkeade, J.)

A district court ordered an oil company and the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) to produce more documents in a suit involving a civil investigative demand (CID) over the company's alleged attempts to cover up research about climate change so that the court could determine whether the case should be dismissed on jurisdictional grounds. The AG issued the CID to the company on April 19, 2016, requesting documents dating back to 1976 in connection with its investigation into whether the company had committed consumer and securities fraud on the citizens of Massachusetts. The company went to federal court to enjoin the AG from enforcing the CID, asserting that it was issued in an attempt to satisfy a political agenda, and the AG moved to dismiss. But the court ordered the parties to engage in jurisdictional discovery. Allegations about the AG, if true, may constitute bad faith in issuing the CID. And if the AG issued the CID in bad faith, then her bad faith precludes Younger abstention. Here, the AG's comments and actions before she issued the CID require further information so that the court can make a more thoughtful determination about whether the lawsuit should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.