October 5, 2004 
Mr. Mark J. Langer 
Clerk, United States Court of Appeals 
for the District of Columbia Circuit 
United States Courthouse 
Room 5423 
Third & Constitution Avenue, N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20001 
Re: Cobell v. Norton, No. 03-5314 
Dear Mr. Langer: 
Oral argument was held in this case on September 15, 
2004. Government trial counsel were recently contacted by the 
district court's law clerk to identify motions referred to at 
that argument. In light of that request, we are submitting 
this letter for the benefit of this Court. 
At argument the government stated, with respect to 
certain account statements that had been completed by the 
Department of the Interior, that "of course we're not even 
allowed to send those out. The District Court has restrained 
us from doing that." Tr. 27. The government also stated: 
"You know, and we still can't send it out. We've got a motion 
that's been pending with the Court for over a year to allow us 
to do that. But he says, no, you can't send out to, you 
can't send that because that would be a contact with class 
beneficiaries." - Id. 27-28. 
The district court on December 23, 2002, issued an order 
barring the government from transmitting completed account 
statements for judgment and per capita accounts to the account 
holders without court approval, indicating that such conduct 
would constitute unethical contact with class members. See 
Gov't Opening Brief at 86-87 (citing district court 
decisions). On February 6, 2003, the government filed a 
motion for leave to send out completed account statements. See id. at 87 (citing motion). On May 28, 2004, the court 
responded to the latter motion but did not grant the 
permissi,on requested; the court issued a further order 
requiring the government to make additional submissions if it 
wished to obtain authorization to actually send out the 
completed account statements. Docket No. 2587. On June 22 
and August 18, 2004, the government filed submissions in the 
district court in accordance with the court’s May 28 order. 
Docket Nos. 2600, 2628. Those submissions remain pending at 
this time. 
Respectfully submitted, 
PETER. D. KEISLER 
Assistant Attorney General 
GREGORY G. KATSAS 
Deputy Assistant Attorney 
General 
ROBERT E. KOPP 
ALISA B. KLEIN 
LEWIS S . YELIN 
T A W L. GROVE 
Attorneys, Appellate Staff 
cc: Hon. Royce C. Lamberth 
Keith M. Harper 
G. William Austin 
Elliott H. Levitas 
Dennis Marc Gingold 
Earl Old Person 
-2-