Bones of Access Discovered in Florida
Court tech has perversely damaged transparency in many courts. But the fossil remnants of pre-tech access were found in one small court in Florida.
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BGirdner
The Season
Under deep, gray skies, in a little town in Denmark, it starts to snow. In white flurries, it falls on the dark cobblestones.
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Calm Within the Election Storm: Voters Get On With It
In contrast to the agitated appeals from left and right and the rising tone of urgency in news reports, voters are calmly casting their ballots in the cauldron of an epidemic, and deciding America’s future.
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Scenes From an Election: Ballot Boxes, Flags, Middle Fingers
As the election now seems to rush towards us, a sturdy, yellow box outside City Hall has become the collector of wishes, the holder of a collective wanting for better times.
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First Amendment Tour de Florida: Stage 3, Tavares to Yulee
Acting like a trade association, Florida’s elected court clerks have seized control of the portal through which public records are created and seen. Why? Follow the money.
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Tour de Florida, Stage 2: Palm Beach to Orlando
On stage 2 of the tour, a bureau chief found the smoking hulk of what used to be one of the premier public access systems in the nation.
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Tour de Florida: Stage 1, Key West to Fort Lauderdale
The Courthouse News bureau chief for Florida toured the Sunshine State’s courts to find a public access system in tatters, taken over by local fiefs.
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A First Amendment Disease: Restrictionism
Restrictionism is a philosophy that has attached itself like a virus to state courts where officials under its sway have come to believe public access to electronic documents should be restricted. It operates in its most virulent form in Florida’s court system where clerks lock court documents by default.
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The Public Is Thems That Pays
There is a great schism in the faith of First Amendment access to court records. As with religious schisms, neither logic nor money matters.
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A Little Slice of Café Life
Out of a pandemic came an experiment with how to enjoy a climate made for being outdoors. So while Europe has largely blocked travelers from America, we have brought a bit of the café life home.
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Two Judges and the Williamsburg Ghost
At oral arguments two years ago in a First Amendment case, a Ninth Circuit judge asked a question. At trial in January, on the other side of the country, a federal judge considering the same First Amendment issue asked an almost identical question.
Read moreFirst Amendment Bright Line in the Digital Age
A bright First Amendment line is being drawn in the digital era between courts that provide on-receipt access to new pleadings and those that delay access.
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National Press Corps Enters First Amendment Fray to See Court Filings on Same Day
Over entrenched resistance from state court clerks, the national press corps filed an appellate brief Monday in support of the First Amendment principle that press and public have the right to see new court filings on the day they are filed.
Read moreUS Judge Slaps Virginia Clerks With $2 Million Fee Award in First Amendment Case
A federal judge in Virginia awarded $2 million in attorney fees against two Virginia court clerks on Wednesday in a First Amendment case brought by Courthouse News. The fee award was the result of a ruling that said reporters are entitled under the Constitution to see new filings on the day they are filed where practicable.
Read moreBattle for Access: Opposition Tactics
In writing about our long war for access to court records, I sometimes forget to mention the obvious, that this conflict is played out under the aegis of the First Amendment.
Read moreE-Filing and the First Amendment
The language used for the electronic filing of court documents translates into an older, simpler set of terms for paper filing. Press access hangs on understanding that translation.
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Matter of Choice
One could say it’s a matter of choice. Clerks in e-filing courts can give the press access on intake. And some choose not to.
Read moreThe Dicta: Guesswork About Press Access
Federal courts, including the Ninth Circuit, automatically make e-filings public the moment they are received. The administration of justice has not suffered for it.
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