Litigants should not make discovery demands that, if granted, will violate their adversaries' First Amendment right protecting private associational political speech, WilmerHale's Jeffrey P. Schomig and Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s Reagan E. Bradford say. To help curtail such fishing expeditions, the authors argue that Congress should set an example by demanding that government agencies refrain from subpoenaing associational membership lists and protected, private political speech without first making a prima facie showing that the association or speech was likely used in furtherance of a crime.

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This article was co-authored by Jeffrey P. Schomig, along with Reagan E. Bradford of Chesapeake Energy Corp., published in Bloomberg BNA's The United States Law Week on February 24, 2015.

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