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 moreIn 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 moreThe 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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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 moreFederal courts, including the Ninth Circuit, automatically make e-filings public the moment they are received. The administration of justice has not suffered for it.
Read moreThe negative presumption of the press as an overweening and demanding group found its way into a recent Ninth Circuit opinion on access to public filings. In fact, the request from Courthouse News has been both moderate and flexible over time, as the author testified on cross-examination in a federal courtroom.
Read moreCNS has at extraordinary cost sought to enforce traditional forms of press access to new court filings. That same form of access, apparently unbeknownst to some jurists, is what the federal courts themselves enforce in the electronic age.
Read moreWhen the press says an e-inbox would return traditional press access to new court filings, it raises some doubt. A judge might ask, so how does all this work.
Read moreAs a series of judicial opinions lifts the fog of pretext, it becomes apparent that court clerks can put in place an electronic inbox that functions precisely as the old wood box on the clerk’s counter used to work, allowing reporters to see new court filings the day they are received.
Read moreUnder oath, in the witness chair, I had to explain one of the most subtle notions about the news: that it soon vanishes.
Read moreA sweeping opinion saying the press is entitled under the First Amendment to see new civil complaints on the day they are filed was based on a four-day trial that included testimony on the tradition of access in American courts.
Read moreHas the arrival of electronic technology in America’s courts brought sunshine or shade? A federal judge asked me about it during a four-day trial.
Read moreFriendships to refresh, holiday rituals to observe, every year lately I go back to Portland during the Christmas holidays. I go to check in.
Read moreThe weeks and months I spent in Denmark came back over me. The hours spent with Isaac’s father in a café called “Bankeråt,” or Bankrupt, over tangy holiday beer. The ebb and flow of good conversation.
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The new version of the old Great Game is being played between a former Soviet intelligence officer and a former TV entertainer. Ukraine is a piece in that game.
Read moreThe airport itself remains a portrait of world humanity with faces of all hues and characteristics standing outside the terminal, freshly arrived from distant lands and now searching for a way out of the airport. They are often maneuvering huge suitcases stacked high on carts. Within the chaos, trains of airline attendants, perfectly coiffed, trim, in matching uniforms, smoothly, quickly weave their way.
Read moreWhat is happening to the DOJ. And why it is not more talked about.
Read moreThe media’s daily concentration on the president’s tactics and language, his tweets and his rallies, leads to the death of overarching analysis. In that bright orange glow, the strategic and methodical undoing of social legislation stays in the shadows.
Read moreEntering a courtroom has always seemed a bit like walking through the doors of a theatre. There are actors who take their positions and say their lines. A director sits up high. A kind of Greek chorus comments on the action with a verdict.
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