Mandamus denied, today at least.

The mandamus petition in In re: Bryant, No. 18-60703 (Nov. 30, 2018, unpublished) arose from a dispute about governance of the airport in Jackson, Mississippi; the Governor sought to quash a court-ordered deposition of his chief of staff. The Fifth Circuit denied the petition – nominally – but essentially invited a return trip if the magistrate judge’s analysis was not sharpened on four key points:

We therefore deny the petition for writ of mandamus, but we do so without prejudice to the renewal of the petition, if needed, after the magistrate judge adequately addresses:

a) whether the information desired can be sought from alternative witnesses or must exclusively come from the Chief of Staff;

 

b) whether the legislators involved in the communications can be deposed;

c) whether the information desired can be obtained in another form; and

 

d) if it cannot be obtained in another form, whether the scope of the inquiry can be more closely tailored to target only the specific questions raised at the Rule 30(b)(6) deposition.

By denying the petition without prejudice in this manner, the Bryant case presents a new variation on a long-running theme in Fifth Circuit mandamus opinions. See In re DuPuy Orthopaedics, Inc., 870 F.3d 345 (5th Cir. 2017) (finding “the MDL court clearly abused any discretion it might have had and, in doing so, reached a ‘patently erroneous’ result,” but concluding: “[P]etitioners have the usual and adequate remedy of ordinary appeal. In fact, they have taken advantage of that remedy by appealing the judgment in the third bellwether trial on personal-jurisdiction grounds.”). In re: Crystal Power Co., 641 F.3d 82 (5th Cir. 2011) (“We confess puzzlement over why respondents insist on litigating this case in federal court even though . . . any judgment issued by the district court will surely be reversed . . . . “); In re: Trinity Industries, 872 F.3d 645 (5th Cir. 2014) (“The court is compelled to note, however, that this is a close case.”)