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.
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Ask any government entity about its pandemic plan in the beginning of March, and you were too early to be taken seriously. If you waited until the end of the month, you were told to get in line.
Read moreA 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.
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The vast network of courts in California have reacted to the pandemic in starkly different ways. Nowhere is the fault line wider and more visible than in Southern California.
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.
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A conservative think tank whose reporters have been barred from press events hosted by Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers failed Tuesday to secure an injunction from a federal judge.
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SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A journalist whose home was raided by police will get $369,000 from San Francisco taxpayers under
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.
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The city of San Francisco will pay $369,000 to settle claims over its police raid on a journalist’s home and office this past May, an action condemned by press advocates as chilling the ability of reporters to get information from anonymous sources.
Read moreOver four days of trial earlier this month, Virginia court clerks used public funds and private attorneys to fight tooth and nail against public access. They wound up with a thumping defeat last week, as a federal judge’s opinion affirmed the First Amendment right to see new court complaints on the day they are filed.
Read moreMatters of bread and herring, and technology: A federal judge in Virginia advances First Amendment law in ruling that news is best consumed when it’s fresh.
Read moreThe Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday that operating as a digital-only news outlet is not grounds for disqualification from the Silver State’s robust shield laws.
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The Trump campaign Monday revoked press credentials for Bloomberg News reporters after the news organization stood by its decision not to investigate its namesake founder, Mike Bloomberg, or other Democratic candidates running against the incumbent Republican president in 2020.
Read moreA senior correspondent for Playboy claims in a federal complaint that the White House suspended his press pass because he lacked “decorum” and “professionalism” when conservative social-media influencers shouted at him during a Rose Garden event last month.
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