United States v. Moloney, In re Dolours Price

The United States and the United Kingdom were parties to a mutual-legal-assistance treaty (MLAT) that provided for bilateral cooperation in obtaining criminal evidence. Senators who ratified the MLAT understood this evidence to include evidence in the hands of private individuals. The MLAT explicitly denied giving rise to any private right of action and explicitly prohibited private individuals from impeding the execution of MLAT requests for assistance. Pursuant to the MLAT and at the United Kingdom’s request, the federal government (defendant) subpoenaed tape recordings in the possession of Boston College (BC). The tapes recorded an oral-history interview that BC researcher Ed Moloney (plaintiff) had conducted with Dolours Price, a former member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). British authorities believed the tapes could shed light on a murder allegedly committed by the IRA in 1972. BC filed federal district-court motions to quash or modify the subpoenas. Moloney moved to intervene both as of right and by permission. Moloney also moved for a declaratory judgment that the government violated and exceeded the MLAT’s scope by trying to reach privately held evidence. Finally, Moloney moved for an injunction limiting the government’s compliance with the British MLAT request to material in the government’s own possession. The district court denied Moloney’s motions. Moloney appealed to the First Circuit.