Federal judge: Delayed access to court records raises First Amendment concerns

Courthouse News editor sees nationwide plagueand hell get a chance to make his case

Its been a routine for generations of legal beat reporters: Every weekday afternoon, at courthouses across the United States, a reporter steps behind the records counter and thumbs through the lawsuits filed that day, looking for news.

This custom is endangered, though, and not just because files have moved online, or because there arent as many legal beat reporters as there used to be. Many state courts now keep new civil cases out of sight of the press and public for days, and sometimes even weeks, after theyre filed.

Its a nationwide plague, said Bill Girdner, the founder and editor of Courthouse News Service.

But now, a federal trial court in California will have to determine whether the standard delays at a local courthouse are permissibleafter a higher court ruled that Girdners complaints raise First Amendment concerns.

Based in Pasadena, CA, Courthouse News is a wire service that specializes in civil litigation and covers the courts for both its own website and around 3,000 subscribers, including the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and other major news organizations.

In 2011, Courthouse News sued the Superior Court of Ventura County, CA, after the court stopped letting the newswires local correspondent see every new civil suit on the day it was filed. A federal judge dismissed the case. But Courthouse News appealed, and on April 7 a panel of three Ninth Circuit judges ruled that the trial court had to hear the case.

Circuit Judge Kim McLane Wardlaws opinion said the case presents an important First Amendment question and thus should be heard in federal court.

Though the government may sometimes withhold information without violating the expressive rights protected by the First Amendment, the First Amendment right of access to public proceedingswhere it appliesis inextricably intertwined with the First Amendment right of free speech, Wardlaw wrote.

The opinion doesnt specifically find that Courthouse News is entitled to records access under the Constitutionthats what the trial court will have to determine. But Wardlaw notes that federal appellate courts have widely agreed that the First Amendment right of access extends to civil proceedings and associated records and documents.

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Federal judge: Delayed access to court records raises First Amendment concerns