United States v. Hooker Chemicals & Plastics Corp.

CURTIN, Chief Judge.

In a ruling dated April 30, 1988, Special Master John E. Sexton held that a “mental processes” privilege is applicable in this case with respect to deposition testimony as to the unwritten, uncommunicated mental activities of certain administrative decisionmakers. The Master went on to hold, however, that in a context such as the instant one where judicial review of an administrative decision is not at issue, the privilege is defined by the parameters of the “deliberative” privilege, and thus does not protect the decisionmaker’s final, i.e., post-decisional, unwritten or…