Cite as: 537 U. S. 129 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
Therefore, we have jurisdiction to hear the PDA portion of this case.
III
We turn now to the merits. Petitioner essentially agrees with the Washington Supreme Court's expansive reading of § 409, but argues that the Washington Supreme Court erred in concluding that Congress was without power to enact the 1995 amendment to § 409. Before addressing the constitutional question, however, we must determine the statute's proper scope.
A
1
According to petitioner, a document initially prepared and then held by an agency (here the county sheriff) for purposes unrelated to § 152 becomes protected under § 409 when a copy of that document is collected by another agency (here the Public Works Department) for purposes of § 152. Under petitioner's view, for example, an accident report prepared and held by the county sheriff for purposes unrelated to § 152 would become protected under § 409 as soon as a copy of that report is sent to the Public Works Department to be used in connection with petitioner's § 152 funding application. Consequently, a person seeking a copy of the accident report either from the county sheriff or from the Public Works Department would not be able to obtain it.8 Brief for Petitioner 37-44.
Dept., 55 Wash. App. 515, 525, 778 P. 2d 1066, 1071 (1989), review denied, 113 Wash. 2d 1037, 785 P. 2d 825 (1990) (Table). Thus, because the Washington Supreme Court held that respondents were entitled to attorney's fees in the PDA action, it must have considered the merits of that action to have been conclusively determined.
8 Indeed, petitioner's brief could be read as suggesting that § 409 protects not only materials containing information collected for § 152 purposes but also any testimony regarding information contained in such materials. Brief for Petitioner 44. See also Brief for Respondents 20 (offering this reading as a possible interpretation of the statute). Under this view, an
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