John Doe v. Merrick Garland

BACKGROUND

In 2007, Appellant John Doe 1 (“Appellant”) was charged with and pled guilty to several mortgage fraud related crimes. Appellant’s prison sentence and supervised release concluded in 2014 and 2017, respectively, and the district

1 Appellant is utilizing the pseudonym John Doe in the instant litigation.

DOE V. GARLAND

court determined on December 2, 2019, that Appellant satisfied his restitution obligations on or about October 24, 2012.

Between 2007 and 2011, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) issued press releases disclosing Appellant’s role in the mortgage fraud crimes with which he and his coconspirators were charged (“Press Releases” or the “Releases”). The Releases include Appellant’s name, age, and the charges against him, as well as some limited employment history. What Appellant takes issue with is not that these notices were published in the first place, but that they remain publicly available on both the DOJ and FBI websites to this day. In 2017, Appellant filed a motion in his criminal case to compel the DOJ to remove public access to the Releases (“Motion to Compel”). However, the…