{"id":16738,"date":"2026-07-29T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/the-doj-is-fighting-apples-request-for-records-from-14-government-agencies-in-an-antitrust-case\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T14:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:10:17","slug":"the-doj-is-fighting-apples-request-for-records-from-14-government-agencies-in-an-antitrust-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/the-doj-is-fighting-apples-request-for-records-from-14-government-agencies-in-an-antitrust-case\/","title":{"rendered":"The DOJ is fighting Apple&#8217;s request for records from 14 government agencies in an antitrust case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The US Department of Justice has asked the court to review a recent ruling that would allow Apple to go after the records of 14 federal agencies in its antitrust case. Here are the details.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-1062749\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-a-bit-of-background\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">It&#8217;s a small background<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this month, retired federal judge Jose Linares, who is serving as a special discovery expert in the case, rejected the government&#8217;s attempt to block Apple from seeking documents from 14 government agencies as part of discovery in the DOJ&#8217;s 2024 antitrust case against the company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Apple, if these documents show that agencies have chosen its products because of their privacy, security, or other factors, they could help undermine the DOJ&#8217;s antitrust claims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reason this dispute reached the special administrator is that the government argued that the agencies are not involved in the case and that Apple&#8217;s requests are frivolous, overly broad, and at risk of revealing special, classified, or sensitive information about national security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Judge Linares ultimately sided with Apple, finding that the requested documents were relevant and that the government had not sufficiently supported its objections.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-doj-asks-court-to-reverse-apple-s-discovery-win-0\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">DOJ asks court to reverse Apple&#8217;s win<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, the DOJ, supported by declarations from several federal officials and offices, has asked Judge Linares to review that decision. Notably, neither the Commerce Department nor the FTC issued an announcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In its proposal, the DOJ says Linares applied the wrong legal standard by treating agencies as parties to the case rather than non-parties entitled to greater protection from discovery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From filling:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Government agencies are not automatically subject to &#8220;party&#8221; discovery whenever the United States files a lawsuit; rather, courts must conduct a specific factual analysis of the state agency&#8217;s relationship in each case.3 The order did not conduct a specific factual analysis in concluding that none of the 14 federal agencies is entitled to the broad protection afforded to non-parties under Rule 45. That was an obvious mistake.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The DOJ says Linares did not conduct an agency-by-agency review before concluding that all 14 organizations were subject to the broad discovery obligations imposed on the groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Along with the motion for reconsideration, the DOJ and the agencies asked the court to confirm that their deadline to appeal Linares&#8217; decision will remain suspended until he decides to overturn it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If Linares stands by his initial decision, the appeals period will begin, allowing the government to challenge the decision before the district judge presiding over the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s worth noting that the dispute comes after a recent report that Apple and the DOJ are discussing a settlement that could end the broader antitrust case. You can read more about that here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can read the DOJ filing below:<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">It&#8217;s worth checking out on Amazon<\/h4>\n<div class=\"google-preferred-source-badge\">\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-dark\" src=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/google-preferred-source-badge-dark.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Mac as a favorite source on Google\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-light\" src=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/google-preferred-source-badge-light.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Mac as a favorite source on Google\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"ad-disclaimer-container\">\n<p class=\"disclaimer-affiliate\"><em>FTC: We use auto affiliate links to earn income.<\/em> More.<\/p>\n<p><!-- post ad --><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Department of Justice has asked the court to review a recent ruling that would allow Apple to go after the records of 14 federal agencies in its antitrust case. Here are the details. It&#8217;s a small background Earlier this month, retired federal judge Jose Linares, who is serving as a special discovery expert [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-laptops-gear"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16740,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16738\/revisions\/16740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}