| US Bill
Against Court Secrecy Highlighted By Press
Exclusion from Larry Ray Case Documents
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
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BBC-Guardian
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
April 7 – Amid continuing
disputes about secrecy and
sealing in the courts, the US
Senate and House will now
consider a bill to require
Federal District Judges to
provide public notice and an
affordable way to contest
requests to seal documents in
the cases before them.
Inner City
Press, which daily covers the
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
(as well as EDNY and DDC), has
had numerous recent
experiences in the field of
over-secrecy and hurdles to
contesting it.
For
example, in the just concluded
US v. Larry Ray case,
involving the Sarah Lawrence
College sex cult, Inner City
Press submitted a request to
unseal documents. But District
Judge Lewis J. Liman ruled:
"ORDER as to
Lawrence Ray: The Court has
received an email from Inner
City Press asking that the
Court unseal materials
submitted by the parties in
this matter. Inner City Press
is not a party to this case,
nor did it submit a motion to
intervene. Accordingly, the
Court will not consider Inner
City Press's request to unseal
the documents. SO ORDERED.
(Signed by Judge Lewis J.
Liman."
While Inner
City Press is nevertheless
through investigative
journalism publishing
documents from the case (see
the forthcoming
#JohnListGone), this ruling is
part of the problem.
The public, or
the press, should not have to
be or hire an attorney to
contest over-secrecy in a
public case.
What should be
added to the bill, introduced
by Senate Judiciary
Committee members Sheldon
Whitehouse and Richard
Blumenthal. and House
Judiciary Committee Chairman
Jerrold Nadler, is routine
listen-only telephone access
to Federal criminal cases and
trials.
This became
common during the COVID
pandemic but it is being
ended, on the January 6 trial
of Guy Reffitt by Judge Dabney
Friedrich in DDC, and
currently by EDNY Chief Judge
Margo Brodie in the 1MDB
case of US v. Roger Ng /
Jho Low (in which the press is
not even allowed to be in the
courtroom, and Inner City
Press even after applying to
the court has had to be
leaving its phone and laptop
in a third floor room, not in
the "overflow" court
room).
On April 6
Inner City Press reported
a criminal case in the SDNY in
which the criminal defense
lawyers thanked the judge from
allowing virtual access, for
their own reasons (less travel
and expense to clients). But
it is important for the public
and press too. Inner City
Press will have more on
this.
***
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