The Plastics Industry Association is asking a federal judge to block a subpoena from California Attorney General Rob Bonta in his ongoing recycling probe, following a similar move by the American Chemistry Council.
In a July 12 filing, the plastics association asked U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington to act quickly to halt enforcement of a subpoena from Bonta that the association contends unconstitutionally limits its speech and the effectiveness of its political advocacy.
The court battle is part of a probe Bonta launched in 2022 to examine whether the industry deceived the public about the potential of recycling to solve plastic waste challenges.
ACC made a similar challenge to Bonta in the same federal court in mid-June, asking Mehta to block Bonta's attempt to enforce his subpoena against ACC in California state court.
Mehta, who is overseeing both federal cases, scheduled a July 19 hearing with the two industry groups and Bonta's office to set a schedule to decide the two cases.
Plastics Industry Association President and CEO Matt Seaholm said in an affidavit filed with the court that fear of Bonta's subpoenas is causing both him and companies in the association to limit their political and policy work.
"I know members who have told me that they would have chosen not to speak or become involved in the development of legislative, regulatory, or other public policy processes or discussions at [the association] if they had known that the California Attorney General would take the position that their internal privileged communications should be produced under its subpoena," Seaholm said.
"... Members have told me that they fear that, by being part of the discovery in this matter, they may be named as a party defendant in this or another matter," Seaholm said, adding Bonta's subpoena also "has chilled my ability to publish communications on behalf of [the association] regarding recycling."
In its filing, the trade group also disclosed that it is in the process of taking back control of more than 50 years of archived industry materials from the association that it has kept at the Hagley Library and Museum in Delaware since 1988.
Bonta has included those materials at Hagley in his subpoena.
In its filing, the association said it had provided Bonta with several batches of documents, but withheld others it says are privileged speech protected from disclosure under the First Amendment.
Bonta's office urged Mehta to not put the California court proceedings on hold.
"Any stay of the California litigation will result in lengthy delays, prejudicial to [Bonta] in the enforcement of a validly issued investigational subpoena," Bonta told the court.