Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Government Website as Self-Authenticating

From Schaghticoke Tribal Nation v. Kempthorne, 2008 WL 4000179, at *3 (D. Conn. Aug. 26, 2008)

:Petitioner's Exhibit 31, the press release issued by Representative Christopher Shays on March 12, 2004, may also be considered self-authenticating. Press releases by government authorities may be self-authenticating under Rule 902(5) as official publications issued by a public authority. Although nothing on the page of the exhibit submitted by Petitioner demonstrates that it was an official document issued by Representative Shays' office, see Sannes v. Jeff Wyler Chevrolet, Inc., No. C-1-97-930, 1999 WL 33313134, at *3 n. 3 (S.D.Ohio March 31, 1999) (holding that Federal Trade Commission press releases “printed from the FTC's government world wide web page[ ] are self-authenticating official publications under Rule 902(5).”), STN included the web address for Representative Shays' press releases in its Local Rule 56(a)(1) statement, thereby allowing the Court to verify that the press release in the record was a copy of an official document issued by a public authority. See 2 McCormick On Evid. § 227 (6th ed. 2006) (noting that information “retrieved from government websites ... has been treated as self-authenticating, subject only to proof that the webpage does exist at the governmental web location.”).

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