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United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.
No. 96-30708.
In re Assassination Records Review Board Subpoena to Harry F.
CONNICK.
Harry F. CONNICK, Assassination Records Review Board Subpoena,
Petitioner-Appellant,
v.
UNITED STATES of America, on Behalf of the ASSASSINATION RECORDS
REVIEW BOARD, Movant-Appellee.
In re Assassination Records Review Board Subpoena to Harry F.
CONNICK.
UNITED STATES of America, Petitioner-Appellee,
v.
Harry F. CONNICK, District Attorney of the Parish of Orleans,
Respondent-Appellant.
Oct. 10, 1997.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Louisiana.
Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, and HIGGINBOTHAM and SMITH, Circuit
Judges.
POLITZ, Chief Judge:
In the late 1960s Orleans Parish District Attorney Jim
Garrison prosecuted New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw for
violations of Louisiana state law in connection with his alleged
participation in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F.
Kennedy. The records of that fruitless and now infamous
prosecution are contained in a file cabinet in New Orleans,
Louisiana; current Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry F.
Connick is the custodian of those records.
1

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review
Board held a hearing in 1995 to evaluate the relevancy of the Shaw
records. Connick appeared at the hearing and confirmed the
existence and content of the records. The Board thereafter
requested that Connick transfer the records to the President John
F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection at the National
Archives. Connick refused to do so.
After learning of the refusal, the Board secured a subpoena
duces tecum directing Connick to surrender the records. Connick
filed a Motion to Quash the subpoena, and the Board filed a
Petition for Summary Enforcement. Following a hearing, the
district court ordered Connick to surrender the records to the
Board. Connick timely appealed the order and judgment contending
that the Board lacks authority to compel the surrender of the Shaw
records.
Congress enacted the President John F. Kennedy Assassination
Records Collection Act to ensure that all records relating to the
assassination of President Kennedy are preserved for and disclosed
to the general public. To achieve this patently meritorious goal,
the Act authorizes the Board to "direct Government offices to
transmit to the [National Archives] assassination records."1 The
Act defines an assassination record as any record related to the
assassination of President Kennedy and "made available for use by
... the Select Committee on Assassinations ... of the House of
1President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection
Act of 1992, Pub.L. No. 102-526, � 7(j)(1)(B), 106 Stat. 3443, 3452
(1992).
2

Representatives."2 The Shaw records indisputably are related to
the assassination of President Kennedy. Further, a representative
of the Select Committee on Assassinations traveled to New Orleans
in 1978 and, with the consent of Connick, inspected, indexed, and
photocopied portions of those records. As a result, the Shaw
records are assassination records within the meaning and intendment
of the Act.
Connick holds a government office within the intendment of
the Act. Exercising its statutory authority,3 the Board issued
regulations defining "government office" as including "all ...
departments, agencies, offices, [or] divisions ... of any ...
state, or local ... government."4 Under this regulation the
Orleans Parish District Attorney occupies a government office
covered by the Act and is obligated to transfer all assassination
records in his possession to the National Archives.
The judgment and order upholding and enforcing the subpoena
duces tecum issued to District Attorney Harry F. Connick is
AFFIRMED.
2Id. � 3(2)(E), 106 Stat. 3444.
3Id. � 7(n), 106 Stat. 3452. The Act authorizes the Board to
issue interpretive regulations. Interpretive regulations are valid
if they "harmonize ... with the plain language of the statute, its
origin, and its purpose." See Rowan Cos. v. United States, 452
U.S. 247, 253, 101 S.Ct. 2288, 2292, 68 L.Ed.2d 814 (1981). The
regulations issued by the Board enable it to assimilate and
preserve all assassination records--whether they be in the hands of
the federal government, a state government, or a private citizen.
These regulations are clearly in line with the stated purpose and
express language of the Act and are, therefore, valid.
436 C.F.R. � 1400.7 (1996).
3