Pat Bainter, as Non-Parties, Appellants v. League of Women Voters of Florida, Appellees

Summary

The court affirmed the order compelling non-parties to produce 538 pages of documents subpoenaed in constitutional redistricting litigation. It held that the non-parties waived any qualified First Amendment associational privilege by failing to assert it during months of discovery proceedings and by raising it only after being held in contempt, and it rejected their trade-secrets claim on preservation and merits grounds. The court also ordered the documents and sealed trial-transcript portions unsealed because no legally valid basis remained for withholding them from public view. Justice Polston, concurring in result, agreed with the waiver and trade-secrets conclusions but separately reasoned that the waiver also satisfied federal law because the non-parties had a reasonable opportunity to assert their federal rights.