A law has won a key battle in its attempt to sue the Department of Labor (DOL) over that agency's efforts to "re-engineer" the labor certification process. In October 1996, the DOL issued General Administrative Letter No. 1-97 which dramatically altered the way the labor certification process works. Certain aspects of the new process have drawn enormous criticism from immigration lawyers. Law firm Tidwell, Swaim & Associates sought to challenge the method the DOL used to impose this change on the public.

In July, 1997, Tidwell filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Labor seeking all documents concerning the issuance and implementation of GAL 1-97. The Department of Labor responded a week later by providing Tidwell with 1) a copy of the GAL 1-97 and 2) a response to a survey of the labor certification processing procedures under GAL 1-97 from a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The DOL withheld five documents claiming the documents were privileged materials not subject to FOIA.

Tidwell was unhappy with the documents received since the documents were items easily obtainable from other sources and they told nothing not already known. They filed an appeal with the DOL's Office of Solicitor on July 18, 1997. The Office of Solicitor General failed to respond in time thus giving the Tidwell the right to file a complaint in Federal District Court. Tidwell then filed a complaint with the District Court for the Northern District of Texas on August 26, 1997.

The DOL argued that the documents were preserved pursuant to the deliberative process privilege. It then asked for summary judgment to close the case claiming Tidwell failed to show any genuine issue of material fact.

The judge denied the DOL's motion for summary judgment and ordered the DOL to turn over the requested documents for the court's own internal review. If the court does not buy the DOL privilege claim, it will release the documents to Tidwell.