STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER FOR AN EXTENSION OF TIME TO PROCESS FOR PUBLIC FILING CERTAIN CLASSIFIED DECLARATIONS AND FOR AN EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE A RULE 11 CERTIFICATION REGARDING PRESERVATION IN FIRST UNITARIAN

JEFFREY S. WHITE, District Judge.

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(b)(1) & Civil Local Rule 6-2, the Government requests, and the parties, by and through their undersigned counsel, hereby stipulate to and respectfully request that the Court (1) extend the time for the Government to complete its classification review of certain classified declarations previously filed in Jewel v. National Security Agency, Civ. No. 08-4373-JSW, Shubert v. Obama, Civ. No. 07-0693-JSW, and First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. National Security Agency, Civ. No. 13-3287-JSW; and (2) extend the time for the Government to file its certification regarding preservation of evidence pursuant to this Court's March 21, 2014, Preservation Order in First Unitarian (ECF No. 103) ("Preservation Order").

(1) With respect to the first matter (classification review), the Government requires additional time to comply with this Court's order, entered at the hearing on March 19, 2014, that the Government on or before April 21, 2014, identify, review, and process for public filing certain classified declarations filed in the above-referenced cases to the extent that such declarations contain information that has since been publicly disclosed by the Government. Whereas the Government had previously completed a similar project concerning seven previously classified declarations within the almost three months' time the Court allowed for compliance, see Jewel, 08-cv-4373-JSW, ECF No. 161 (Amended Civil Minute Order dated Sept. 27, 2013), the Court's order of March 19 required the completion of a similar process for ten declarations in about one month.

The Government has not—despite significant efforts—been able to comply with the Court's order to complete its classification review of these ten declarations by April 21, 2014. Significant information in the declarations remains highly classified, which must be separated from any information that no longer remains classified. Each declaration must undergo several layers of careful line-by-line review before public versions can be produced. These reviews also require inter-agency consultation and coordination, which takes additional time and resources from various governmental components that have a limited number of individuals who have the experience and clearances necessary to perform these reviews. These individuals must conduct these reviews in addition to other classification-review tasks such as complying with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and court-ordered deadlines in related FOIA litigation. For these reasons, the Government respectfully requests, and Plaintiffs do not oppose, a two-week extension until May 5, 2014, for the Government to complete its classification-review, processing, and (as appropriate) public filing of the ten declarations that the Government has identified as subject to the Court's March 19 order.

(2) With respect to the second matter (preservation certification), the Government requests a similar two-week extension of time to submit the certification required by this Court's Preservation Order in First Unitarian. That Order requires counsel for each party by April 21, 2014, to certify to the Court, under seal and pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11, that the directive counsel are required, under paragraph E of the Order, to issue to their respective clients has been carried out. From the date the Preservation Order was entered, Government counsel and the defendant agencies have exercised due diligence in addressing every aspect of that Order, including the provisions of paragraph E regarding practices of any party involving the routine destruction, recycling, relocation, or mutation of materials that may be relevant to the case, so as to be in a position to submit the required certification as directed. Notwithstanding these efforts, in light of the need for coordination between various defendant agencies and components, additional time is needed to complete the certification process.

The Government Defendants respectfully request, and Plaintiffs do not oppose, an extension of that deadline from April 21 to May 5, 2014.

The Court has not set a hearing date for these matters. There have been no previous requests to alter these deadlines, and the requested changes should not impact the overall schedule of this case.

DECLARATION PURSUANT TO LOCAL RULE 5-1

I, James J. Gilligan, hereby declare pursuant to Local Rule 5-1 that I have obtained Plaintiffs' concurrence in the filing of this document from Cindy Cohn, counsel for Plaintiffs.

Executed on April 21, 2014, in Washington, D.C.

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PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, it is ORDERED that the Government's deadline for completing its classification review, processing, and (as appropriate) public filing, of the ten declarations that the Government has identified as subject to the Court's March 19 order be extended from April 21 to May 5, 2014. Similarly, PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, it is ORDERED that the deadline of April 21 be extended to May 5, 2014, for the Government to certify that the directive counsel are required to issue to their respective clients pursuant to paragraph E of the Court's Preservation Order in First Unitarian Order has been carried out.

AND IT IS SO ORDERED.