In re McCarthy

Supplemental brief filed by EPA.

After the district court denied reconsideration of the May 2015 discovery order, EPA filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the appellate court to direct the district court to vacate the discovery order and disallow discovery. EPA said that this unusual relief was warranted because “Congress strictly limited the scope of judicial inquiry in nondiscretionary-duty suits like this one, and the extraordinarily broad discovery compelled by the district court has no reasonable prospect of unearthing evidence relevant to the ultimate disposition of this case.”