Supreme Court won't hear case on Justice Department 'filter teams' like those used in Trump search

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take a case regarding whether the Justice Department is able to use "filter teams," which are used to review evidence and determine whether it is privileged, such as the team used after the FBI's raid of former President Donald Trump's home.

The justices denied writ of certiorari in a case questioning filter team protocols that allow federal officials to review documents that are purportedly privileged before the status of privilege has been determined, The Hill reported.

FBI agents reported recovering classified documents and a "limited" number of potentially privileged materials from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The former president has used several defenses against the Justice Department, but the most notable claim is that the FBI seized privileged materials. 

In Korf v. United States, the filter team case that the Supreme Court will not hear this term, Justice attorneys reviewed seized documents before a court responded to privilege claims on the materials. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not require the filter team to show that a privilege exception may have applied to the questionable documents.