PUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
COMMISSION,
Petitioner-Appellee,
v. No. 09-2263
WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY
COMMISSION,
Respondent-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Maryland, at Greenbelt.
Alexander Williams, Jr., District Judge.
(8:09-cv-00825-AW)
Argued: December 8, 2010
Decided: January 26, 2011
Before WILKINSON and NIEMEYER, Circuit Judges,
and Patrick Michael DUFFY, Senior United States District
Judge for the District of South Carolina,
sitting by designation.
Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wilkinson wrote the
opinion, in which Judge Niemeyer and Senior Judge Duffy
joined.
2 EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION
COUNSEL
ARGUED: Todd James Horn, VENABLE, LLP, Baltimore,
Maryland, for Appellant. Susan Ruth Oxford, EQUAL
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Wash-
ington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: George W. Johnston,
VENABLE, LLP, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. P.
David Lopez, General Counsel, Carolyn L. Wheeler, Acting
Associate General Counsel, Lorraine C. Davis, Assistant Gen-
eral Counsel, EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
COMMISSION, Washington, D.C., for Appellee.
OPINION
WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
("WSSC"), a public utility, restructured its Information Tech-
nology ("IT") Department by eliminating essentially all of its
merit-system positions and replacing them with reorganized,
non-merit-system ones. Some of the displaced employees
filed an age discrimination complaint with the Equal Employ-
ment Opportunity Commission, alleging that WSSC con-
ducted the restructuring in violation of the Age
Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq.
The EEOC subpoenaed WSSC for records related to the
restructuring and to the IT Department’s training practices,
employment policies, and discrimination history. WSSC
declined to comply: it argued that legislative immunity and
privilege shielded the materials because the restructuring was
partially accomplished through county budget processes.
After the EEOC dropped certain portions of its request, the
district court ordered WSSC to comply with the remainder of
the subpoena.
EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION 3
WSSC now appeals that order, again pressing its claim to
legislative immunity and privilege. We recognize the great
importance of protecting legislators from intrusive and costly
inquiries into their legislative acts. But we decline to inter-
vene in the EEOC’s investigation at this time. It is simply too
early to tell whether the investigation will ever involve the
application of coercive process against legislators and accord-
ingly premature to address speculative claims of legislative
privilege. The order of the district court is therefore affirmed.
I.
A.
WSSC is a bi-county governmental body providing water
and sewer services to most of Prince George’s and Montgom-
ery Counties in Maryland. See generally Md. Code Ann. art.
29, § 1-101 et seq.; Katz v. WSSC, 397 A.2d 1027, 1032 (Md.
1979) (characterizing WSSC as a state agency for sovereign
immunity purposes).1 It is led by six commissioners, and each
county selects three of the six. In 2005 WSSC hired a new
General Manager, Andrew Brunhart, and a new Chief Infor-
mation Officer, Goutam Kundu. Kundu was in charge of
WSSC’s IT Department. Late that year Kundu conducted an
assessment of the IT Department and concluded that it needed
to be restructured, with essentially all of its current, merit-
system positions eliminated and replaced with newly created,
non-merit ones. WSSC contends that eliminating the old posi-
tions in favor of new, non-merit ones allowed WSSC to offer
higher salaries, thereby attracting more highly skilled employ-
ees and alleviating the problems that Kundu found to be
affecting the IT Department.
1
The applicable provisions of Maryland law have been revised and relo-
cated since the events in question, but without relevant substantive change.
See generally Md. Code Ann., Pub. Utils. § 16-101 et seq. (LexisNexis
2010).
4 EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION
The proposed changes required an increase to the IT
Department’s proposed Fiscal Year ("FY") 2007 budget. Gen-
eral Manager Brunhart forwarded the changes, along with the
rest of the proposed WSSC budget, to the WSSC Commis-
sioners. The Commissioners met to discuss the budget, and
they reviewed details regarding the proposed IT reorganiza-
tion. The Commissioners voted to send the preliminary bud-
get, including the changes stemming from the restructuring, to
a public hearing. In February 2006 Kundu made another pre-
sentation to the Commissioners regarding the reorganization,
and they voted in favor of the proposal. Shortly thereafter,
they unanimously approved the FY 2007 budget at a public
meeting, sending the proposed budget on to the county execu-
tives.
Maryland law required the county councils to review
WSSC’s budget and gave the councils authority to "add to,
delete from, increase, or decrease [a budget] item." Md. Code
Ann. art. 29, § 1-204(c)(1)(ii). Accordingly, WSSC also had
discussions with the councils about the proposed restructur-
ing. County participants at a budget session asked for details
about financial aspects of the restructuring, and WSSC pro-
vided the county executives and county council members
information about the restructuring’s purpose and impact.
Both county councils addressed, to some degree, the proposed
restructuring. A subcommittee of the Prince George’s County
Council devoted a meeting to the topic, with some members
expressing concerns about the impact on current employees.
The full council, however, completed its review of WSSC’s
proposed budget, including the IT Department restructuring,
without recommending any changes.
Similarly, a subcommittee of the Montgomery County
Council received a report that contained an analysis of the
budget’s impact on employment. After a hearing at which one
council member expressed some concerns about the restruc-
turing, the subcommittee as a whole made no recommenda-
EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION 5
tion either way.2 The entire Montgomery County Council then
met, with some members again voicing concerns about elimi-
nating the merit positions. However, the council ultimately
sent budget recommendations to Prince George’s County that
made no mention of the restructuring or of its accompanying
IT Department funding increase.
The two counties met to resolve unrelated disagreements
regarding the FY 2007 budget. After the counties failed at this
effort, however, the proposed budget became final by opera-
tion of law. Before implementing the restructuring, WSSC
notified current employees of the plan, encouraged them to
apply for positions in the restructured department, and pro-
vided them with transitional support. On July 21, 2006—after
all the new positions had been filled—current employees who
were not offered post-restructuring jobs were told that August
6 would be their last day on the job.
B.
Not everyone was happy about the restructuring. In Octo-
ber 2006, Colleen Bowen and fifteen other former employees
filed suit in Maryland state court against WSSC, the WSSC
Commissioners, Brunhart, and Kundu. Plaintiffs alleged that
the restructuring violated Maryland law and WSSC’s own
policies regarding merit system positions, that it violated the
plaintiffs’ due process rights, and that it impermissibly dis-
criminated against them on the basis of their age. In Decem-
ber 2006, Bowen and fourteen others also filed age
discrimination charges against WSSC with the EEOC. They
2
Some were concerned that WSSC lacked authority to eliminate the
merit positions. WSSC requested advice from the Maryland Attorney Gen-
eral’s Office on this question and was informed that under Md. Code Ann.
art. 29, § 11-103, it could eliminate the merit positions so long as it had
a bona fide reason to do so. WSSC also received permission to eliminate
the merit positions from the Secretary of the Maryland Department of
Budget and Management, the only official whose authorization was neces-
sary for WSSC to eliminate the positions.
6 EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION
alleged that WSSC discriminated against them in training
decisions made prior to the restructuring, that the restructur-
ing was actually motivated by a desire to eliminate the older
workers and to avoid paying their approaching retirement
benefits, and that WSSC discriminatorily hired undertrained
younger workers to fill the new positions.
WSSC responded to the state and federal proceedings by
asserting legislative immunity and legislative privilege. The
state trial court dismissed without prejudice WSSC’s conten-
tions, and in September 2007 the Maryland Court of Special
Appeals rejected WSSC’s appeal on the grounds that the rul-
ing was not a final judgment. The Maryland Court of Appeals
granted WSSC’s petition for certiorari, but in the meantime
the EEOC requested additional information from WSSC and,
in May 2008, subpoenaed it. In April 2009 the EEOC sought
to enforce the subpoena in federal district court, though the
proceedings were stayed pending the Maryland Court of
Appeals’s decision. That court ultimately decided that it could
not hear WSSC’s interlocutory appeal, see WSSC v. Bowen,
978 A.2d 678, 683–87 (Md. 2009), leaving the district court
to adjudicate whether WSSC had to comply with the EEOC’s
subpoena.
The subpoena requested a broad range of documents, sum-
marized here:
• Kundu’s employee file, as well as the complain-
ants’ files, the files of former IT employees who
applied for post-restructuring positions, and the
files of those who made post-restructuring
employment decisions for WSSC.
• Analyses and standards WSSC used in deciding
to abolish the existing positions, along with
records of internal deliberations about that deci-
sion.
EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION 7
• Tests WSSC used in making employment deci-
sions since 2005, as well as any criteria used in
making hiring decisions during and after the
restructuring.
• The names of everyone employed by WSSC
since 2005, everyone terminated because of the
restructuring, everyone who applied for post-
restructuring positions, everyone hired for such
positions, everyone responsible for making post-
restructuring hiring decisions, and every former
employee who was rehired after the restructuring.
• Advertisements used during and after the restruc-
turing to advertise for IT Department positions.
• Documents related to training opportunities pro-
vided to IT Department employees since 2005.
• Job descriptions and requirements for IT Depart-
ment positions since 2005, as well as the applica-
tions submitted for post-restructuring positions.
• Records of all IT Department hires, promotions,
discipline, and voluntary separations since 2005,
along with records of any allegation of age dis-
crimination or retaliation lodged against WSSC
and of the WSSC’s formal and informal
employee policies.
During the district court proceedings, however, the EEOC
modified its request, dropping the items demanding records of
internal deliberations regarding the restructuring and of the
analyses and standards used in deciding whether to restruc-
ture. The district court ruled that while legislative privilege
might in theory defeat the EEOC’s subpoena power, the
EEOC’s modified subpoena asked for information about dis-
crimination prior to and after the legislative restructuring
8 EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION
decision, not for information about the decision to restructure
itself. It therefore ordered WSSC to comply. WSSC appeals
that decision.
II.
Congress explicitly subjected "political subdivision[s] of a
State and any agency or instrumentality of a State or a politi-
cal subdivision of a State" to the Age Discrimination in
Employment Act’s (ADEA) antidiscrimination requirements.
29 U.S.C. § 630(b). Although the ADEA does not abrogate
state sovereign immunity from private damages suits, see
Kimel v. Fla. Bd. of Regents, 528 U.S. 62, 91 (2000), the
EEOC retains authority to enforce the ADEA’s provisions by
suing on its own, see S.C. State Ports Auth. v. Fed. Mar.
Comm’n, 243 F.3d 165, 176 (4th Cir. 2001) (stating that the
EEOC "can bring an action against a state under the ADEA
even though a private individual cannot do so").
Congress also granted the EEOC authority to "make inves-
tigations and require the keeping of records necessary or
appropriate for the administration of" the ADEA. 29 U.S.C.
§ 626(a). Along with this grant of investigative authority,
Congress gave the EEOC commensurate authority to sub-
poena information and gave district courts jurisdiction to
enforce those subpoenas. See id. (incorporating the subpoena
and enforcement powers found within 15 U.S.C. § 49). In the
ADEA context, the EEOC’s investigatory powers do not turn
on the particulars of a complainant’s charge; "the EEOC [has]
authority to investigate and enforce" independent of any
ADEA charge brought by aggrieved employees. EEOC v. Am.
& Efird Mills, Inc., 964 F.2d 300, 304 (4th Cir. 1992).
However, the EEOC’s subpoena authority has its limits. In
order for a district court to enforce an administrative sub-
poena, the EEOC must show that "(1) it is authorized to make
such investigation; (2) it has complied with statutory require-
ments of due process; and (3) the materials requested are rele-
EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION 9
vant." EEOC v. Lockheed Martin Corp., Aero & Naval Sys.,
116 F.3d 110, 113 (4th Cir. 1997) (quoting EEOC v. City of
Norfolk Police Dep’t, 45 F.3d 80, 82 (4th Cir. 1995)). More-
over, administrative subpoenas must not be "excessive or
unduly burdensome." Am. & Efird Mills, 964 F.2d at 303.
The EEOC’s subpoena power is also constrained by evi-
dentiary privileges. In University of Pennsylvania v. EEOC,
493 U.S. 182, 195 (1990), the Court recognized this fact; it
rejected the University’s request for a peer review materials
privilege but spoke approvingly of other cases recognizing
evidentiary privileges that had "constitutional foundation[s]."
The circuit courts have agreed, refusing to enforce administra-
tive subpoenas where the agency’s request would trample on
recognized privileges and upholding them where it would not.
See, e.g., U.S. Dep’t of Educ. v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic
Ass’n, 481 F.3d 936, 938 (7th Cir. 2007) (rejecting an internal
investigations privilege but noting that "there are privileges
that can be used to keep information from government agen-
cies"); EEOC v. Lutheran Soc. Servs., 186 F.3d 959, 969
(D.C. Cir. 1999) (dismissing an EEOC subpoena enforcement
action where the subpoena sought information protected by
the work product privilege).
Legislative privilege clearly falls within the category of
accepted evidentiary privileges. See, e.g., Burtnick v. McLean,
76 F.3d 611, 613 (4th Cir. 1996) (recognizing legislative priv-
ilege in Title VII, ADEA, and § 1983 actions). To understand
why the privilege is so well accepted, it is necessary to take
a step back and examine the parallel concept of legislative
immunity. Our legal system has broadly recognized the right
"of legislators to be free from arrest or civil process for what
they do or say in legislative proceedings." Tenney v. Brand-
hove, 341 U.S. 367, 372 (1951); see generally Whitener v.
McWatters, 112 F.3d 740, 743–44 (4th Cir. 1997) (tracing the
history of legislative immunity).
The Speech or Debate Clause provides such immunity from
suit to federal legislators. See U.S. Const. art. I, § 6, cl. 1. In
10 EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION
recognition of the immunity’s historical pedigree and practi-
cal importance the Supreme Court has extended it to a wide
range of legislative actors. See Bogan v. Scott-Harris, 523
U.S. 44, 49 (1998) (local legislators); Lake Country Estates,
Inc. v. Tahoe Reg’l Planning Agency, 440 U.S. 391, 402–06
(1979) (regional legislators); Tenney, 341 U.S. at 372–76
(state legislators). It applies even where the legislative body
to which the individual legislator belongs lacks immunity for
its legislative acts, compare Owen v. City of Independence,
445 U.S. 622, 657 (1980) (municipalities do not enjoy immu-
nity under § 1983), with Bogan, 523 U.S. at 49 (municipal
legislators do), and it covers all those properly acting in a leg-
islative capacity, not just actual officeholders, see Supreme
Court of Va. v. Consumers Union of the U.S., 446 U.S. 719,
731–34 (1980).
Legislative immunity’s practical import is difficult to over-
state. As members of the most representative branch, legisla-
tors bear significant responsibility for many of our toughest
decisions, from the content of the laws that will shape our
society to the size, structure, and staffing of the executive and
administrative bodies carrying them out. Legislative immu-
nity provides legislators with the breathing room necessary to
make these choices in the public’s interest, in a way
"[un]inhibited by judicial interference [and] [un]distorted by
the fear of personal liability." Bogan, 523 U.S. at 52. It allows
them to focus on their public duties by removing the costs and
distractions attending lawsuits. It shields them from political
wars of attrition in which their opponents try to defeat them
through litigation rather than at the ballot box. And it
increases the caliber of our elected officials by preventing the
"threat of liability [from] significantly deter[ring] service,"
particularly in "local government, where prestige and pecuni-
ary rewards may pale in comparison to the threat of civil lia-
bility." Id. Legislative immunity thus reinforces representative
democracy, fostering public decisionmaking by public ser-
vants for the right reasons.
EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION 11
Legislative privilege against compulsory evidentiary pro-
cess exists to safeguard this legislative immunity and to fur-
ther encourage the republican values it promotes. See
Burtnick, 76 F.3d at 613. "Absolute immunity enables legisla-
tors to be free, not only from ‘the consequences of litigation’s
results, but also from the burden of defending themselves.’"
Id. (quoting Dombrowski v. Eastland, 387 U.S. 82, 85 (1967))
(emphasis added). Because litigation’s costs do not fall on
named parties alone, this privilege applies whether or not the
legislators themselves have been sued. See id.; MINPECO,
S.A. v. Conticommodity Servs., Inc., 844 F.2d 856, 859 (D.C.
Cir. 1988) ("A litigant does not have to name members or
their staffs as parties to a suit in order to distract them from
their legislative work. Discovery procedures can prove just as
intrusive."). Consequently, if the EEOC or private plaintiffs
sought to compel information from legislative actors about
their legislative activities, they would not need to comply. See
Burtnick, 76 F.3d at 613 (noting that the plaintiff would have
to make a prima facie ADEA case without testimony from
city council members unless they waived the privilege).
III.
WSSC does not challenge the subpoenaed items’ relevance,
the EEOC’s process in issuing the subpoena, or the burdens
WSSC would face in complying with it. We thus have no
occasion to consider these questions. Instead, WSSC insists
that the subpoena trenches upon legislative immunity and leg-
islative privilege. It contends that the EEOC seeks to learn
whether age bias motivated WSSC’s decision to restructure
the IT Department, a topic which it argues will impermissibly
require testimony from the WSSC Commissioners and county
council members. WSSC also argues that because the restruc-
turing decision inherently involved the employees whose
positions were abolished and decisions about how and whom
to hire after the restructuring, the modified subpoena cannot
be carved up into acceptable time periods that will not require
legislative testimony. While we agree wholeheartedly with
12 EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION
WSSC about the importance of legislative immunity and priv-
ilege, we do not believe the EEOC’s modified subpoena
threatens them at the present time.
A.
We note at the outset that these proceedings are at a very
preliminary stage. The EEOC is not bringing suit against
WSSC for ADEA violations; it is merely investigating possi-
ble age discrimination at WSSC. Moreover, the EEOC is only
in the early stages of that investigation. At this point, it is sim-
ply unknown whether the EEOC’s investigation will ripen
into a lawsuit against WSSC and, if so, whether either side in
that so–far-nonexistent lawsuit will seek coercive process
against legislative officials to make its case.
What we do know, however, is that none of the county
council members or the WSSC Commissioners has been sub-
poenaed to testify, and we have as yet no reason to believe
that WSSC’s production of the requested materials will
require that legislative officials divert their time and attention
away from their legislative duties. It would be premature to
refuse to enforce the modified subpoena now because a legiti-
mate claim of privilege might ripen at some point down the
road.
WSSC contends that we need not wait around to learn
whether the EEOC will seek information regarding legisla-
tors’ motives and whether WSSC will need legislative testi-
mony to defend itself. It argues that the EEOC’s own
statements, along with the complainants’ charges, demon-
strate the EEOC’s intent to inquire after WSSC’s motive in
restructuring the IT department. Moreover, WSSC insists the
ADEA’s proof framework will require it to seek legislators’
testimony. Age discrimination plaintiffs must prove that "age
was the ‘but-for’ cause of the employer’s adverse action."
Gross v. FBL Fin. Servs., Inc., 129 S. Ct. 2343, 2351 (2009).
Thus to defend itself against the complainants’ allegations
EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION 13
that the restructuring was motivated by age, WSSC will even-
tually need testimony from WSSC Commissioners or county
council members.
WSSC’s arguments miss the mark. For starters, its conten-
tion that legislative immunity and privilege require that inves-
tigations be halted where the parties might one day seek
material protected by legislative privilege is questionable. It
is one thing to recognize that state legislative bodies possess
legislative immunity from suit. See Consumers Union, 446
U.S. at 733–34 (suggesting that state legislatures and their
subcommittees enjoy legislative immunity against § 1983
suits). It is another, though, to extend that immunity, at least
insofar as it is solely derived from some future hypothetical
need for legislators’ testimony, to investigations into other,
non-legislative acts.
While claims of legislative immunity and privilege may
assuredly be asserted to resist agency investigations into legis-
lative acts, it is worth noting that our cases dismissing claims
on legislative immunity and privilege grounds involved full-
blown lawsuits. See, e.g., Baker v. Mayor and City Council of
Baltimore, 894 F.2d 679 (4th Cir. 1990), overruled on other
grounds by Berkley v. Common Council of the City of
Charleston, 63 F.3d 295, 303 (4th Cir. 1995) (en banc);
Schlitz v. Virginia, 854 F.2d 43 (4th Cir. 1988), overruled on
other grounds by Berkley, 63 F.3d at 303. The threat to legis-
lative immunity and privilege in such circumstances is more
acute than it is here; both sides have powers of coercive pro-
cess, both sides are well aware of the evidence needed to
prove or defend against known claims, and both parties’
impending liability or recovery may thus depend on their abil-
ity to get legislators’ testimony. In Burtnick, moreover, we did
not order dismissal where the claims stemmed from the city
council’s vote to eliminate one filled position and create
another empty one, instead allowing the case against the
municipality to go forward but recognizing that individual
legislators must remain free from both suit and process. See
14 EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION
Burtnick, 76 F.3d at 612–13. While WSSC’s hybrid nature as
a state-created agency that is largely controlled by two coun-
ties may give it a stronger claim to legislative immunity than
the municipalities sued in Burtnick and Berkley, it would still
be too hasty to cut off the EEOC’s investigation into whether
WSSC’s unprivileged acts violated the ADEA just because a
meritorious claim to immunity or privilege might eventually
materialize.
We also cannot assume the EEOC’s investigation will fol-
low the path WSSC projects. The EEOC has stated that it "is
not investigating WSSC’s motives for the reorganization,"
and WSSC may hold it to that declaration. Moreover, as men-
tioned above, the EEOC’s investigatory power here is not
inexorably tied to the complainants’ charges. See Gilmer v.
Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., 500 U.S. 20, 28 (1991).
Aspects of the complainants’ charge that would tread close to
impermissible areas do not fatally undermine the EEOC’s
authority to investigate other instances of age discrimination
that do not implicate the privilege and that the complainants
intimate occurred at WSSC. In particular, the EEOC can con-
tinue with its stated current investigatory goals—determining
whether WSSC discriminated in distributing training prior to
the restructuring and whether it discriminated in hiring after
the restructuring. The possibility that the agency may one day
wander into impermissible terrain is not sufficient reason to
halt what thus far seems a permissible inquiry.
B.
Indeed, we need not just take the EEOC’s word regarding
the scope of its scrutiny; its actions likewise suggest that
WSSC’s claim is premature. As mentioned above, the EEOC
made several efforts to avoid requesting potentially privileged
information. It properly rescinded its demand for records of
internal deliberations about the restructuring and for the stan-
dards used in deciding to restructure. Equally sound was its
decision to withdraw any investigation into the motives
EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION 15
underlying the decision to restructure. As the district court
suggested, following these lines of inquiry would have
brought the EEOC impermissibly close to privileged materials
regarding the WSSC Commissioners’ reasons for approving
the proposed restructuring and the county council members’
reasons for approving WSSC’s budget, a "quintessentially
legislative" act, Bogan, 523 U.S. at 55.
The modified subpoena skirts these potentially intrusive
topics and focuses on evidence likely regarding unprivileged
administrative personnel decisions. Take for example the
request for lists of IT Department employees since 2005, the
criteria used in making employment decisions since then, and
records of allegations of age discrimination lodged after that
time. This material likely goes toward WSSC’s administrative
decisions regarding training the IT Department’s particular
employees and responding to specific discrimination claims,
not toward the county councils’ decision to approve the bud-
get or the WSSC Commissioners’ work in preparing or pass-
ing along that budget. In the absence of evidence that these
activities were part of the legislative process in some fashion,
and with no evidence that legislators set the criteria for or par-
ticipated in such decisions, we find no basis for declining to
enforce the modified subpoena. See United States v. Jefferson,
546 F.3d 300, 310 (4th Cir. 2008).
The modified subpoena’s requests for documents regarding
events after the restructuring likewise appear to relate to
administrative rather than legislative acts. It asks for records
regarding the job descriptions for the new positions, the appli-
cations submitted for those positions, the criteria used in mak-
ing the post-restructuring hiring decisions, and the names of
former IT Department employees who applied for the posts.
As far as we can tell at this early stage, these materials speak
to particularized administrative decisions regarding how and
whom to hire after the restructuring, not to the county coun-
cils’ reasons for approving the budget or to any generally
applicable, legislatively established policy regarding those
16 EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION
positions. The decisions also seem the kind that likely would
be made by staff rather than by legislators themselves. We
have no reason at this juncture to believe that legislative offi-
cials took part in making these hiring decisions, or even if
they did, that they could fairly be characterized as legislative
acts. See Alexander v. Holden, 66 F.3d 62, 65–66 (4th Cir.
1995).
Calling the activities that the modified subpoena seeks to
investigate here "integral steps in the legislative process,"
Bogan, 523 U.S. at 55, would, at least on our present state of
knowledge, expand legislative privilege beyond its proper
bounds. Legislative acts, the ones for which the immunity and
privilege are granted, typically involve the "adopt[ion of] pro-
spective, legislative-type rules," Alexander, 66 F.3d at 67,
rules that "‘establish[ ] . . . a general policy’ affecting the
larger population," id. at 66 (quoting Acevedo-Cordero v.
Cordero-Santiago, 958 F.2d 20, 23 (1st Cir. 1992)). They also
generally bear the outward marks of public decisionmaking,
including the observance of formal legislative procedures.
See, e.g., Baraka v. McGreevey, 481 F.3d 187, 198 (3d Cir.
2007). By contrast, "legislators’ employment and personnel
decisions are generally administrative acts" because they most
often affect specific individuals rather than formulate broad
public policy. Alexander, 66 F.3d at 66. By extending blanket
protection to WSSC’s pre-restructuring and post-restructuring
employment activities, rejecting the modified subpoena at this
stage would upset this relatively stable classification system
and cast doubt on our previous decisions establishing it.
IV.
Litigation by its nature features dark and bright sides of the
moon. The dark side of subpoenas such as this lies in their
threat to needed bureaucratic innovation and restructuring and
in their potential threat to vitality and independence in the leg-
islative branch. Legislative immunity and legislative privilege
protect legislators from the perils of individual liability and
EEOC v. WASHINGTON SUBURBAN SANITARY COMMISSION 17
the distractions of compulsory process. We have these doc-
trines for apparent and important reasons. The public must be
able to make its electoral selection from a wealth of qualified
candidates, not simply the few undeterred or unaffected by the
threat of financial liability, and those selected must be able to
focus their entire energies on discharging their public duties,
free from concerns about personal consequences and the has-
sles of lawsuits.
The other, brighter lunar side of course is the ability of
Americans to work without the discrimination that the legisla-
tive branch has itself condemned. And the modified subpoena
thus far advances this legislative intent without impairing leg-
islative independence. At this preliminary stage of the investi-
gation the EEOC has not sought testimony from the WSSC
Commissioners or from county council members, and we do
not yet know whether its investigation will even evolve into
a lawsuit or whether defending such a suit would require leg-
islators’ testimony or involvement. The EEOC has also dem-
onstrated its willingness to avoid infringing on potentially
privileged territory, and the remaining materials it seeks
appear to go largely to administrative employment decisions.
On the present record, we see no basis for not enforcing the
subpoena. The order of the district court is accordingly
affirmed.
AFFIRMED