Islamic Shura Council of So. Cal. v. FBI, No. 12-55305 (9th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseThe FBI appealed the district court's order granting Shura Council's motion for sanctions under Rule 11(c). The FBI had already "corrected" the challenged pleadings and provided all the information it was obligated to provide to the district court before Shura Council filed its motion for sanctions. Shura Council moved for sanctions long after the district court had ruled on the adequacy of the government's eventual compliance, and a fortiori after it had ruled the FBI's original response had been inadequate and misleading. The motion for sanctions was made after "judicial rejection of the offending contention." Accordingly, the court reversed and vacated the award of fees.
Court Description: Sanctions/Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(c). The panel reversed the district court’s order granting the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California’s motion for sanctions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(c), and vacated the district court’s order awarding fees. The panel noted that before Shura Council filed its motion for sanctions, the FBI had already “corrected” the challenged pleadings and provided all the additional documents it was obligated to provide under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the district court in an in camera proceeding. Shura Council moved for sanctions long after the district court had ruled on the adequacy of the government’s eventual compliance with FOIA, and a fortiori after it had ruled the FBI’s original response had been inadequate and misleading. The panel held that the motions for sanctions should not have been granted because it was made after the “judicial rejection of the offending contention.” Advisory Committee’s Notes to the 1993 Amendments to Rule 11.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on March 18, 2014.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.