Christopher v. Harbury, 536 U.S. 403, 17 (2002)

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Cite as: 536 U. S. 403 (2002)

Opinion of the Court

tions. Counsel responded that Harbury would have brought an action for intentional infliction of emotional distress 17 as

one wrong for which she could have sought the injunctive relief that might have saved her husband's life:

"[I]f defendants had disclosed the information they possessed about Bamaca, Harbury could have sought an emergency injunction based on an underlying tort claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Even if the NSC and State Department officials had simply said they could not discuss Bamaca's situation, counsel explained, Harbury would have filed her FOIA requests immediately, thus perhaps obtaining the information necessary to seek an injunction in time to save her husband's life. Instead, believing defendants' reassurances, Harbury waited for the State Department and NSC officials to complete their 'investigation.' " 233 F. 3d, at 609.

The Court of Appeals adopted this theory in saying that the "adequate legal redress" alleged for purposes of Harbury's access claims meant emergency injunctive relief in a now futile lawsuit for intentional infliction of emotional distress,

17 Whether the Court of Appeals should have extended that opportunity is not an issue before us. We see counsel's answer as amounting to an amendment of pleadings that still fails to cure the inadequacy of the denial-of-access claim. In providing the clarification, Harbury's counsel appears to have been referring to the intentional-infliction counts against the CIA defendants alleged elsewhere in her complaint, App. 55 (counts 18-19). See infra, at 422. Whatever latitude is allowed by federal notice pleading, no one says Harbury should be allowed to construe "adequate legal redress" to mean causes of action that were not even mentioned in her complaint. As for Harbury's position here, suffice it to say that a brief to this Court, see Brief for Respondent at 22-33 (listing causes of action that Harbury could have brought in 1993), is not the place to supplement pleadings in response to a motion in the trial court to dismiss for failure to state a claim.

419

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