Sealing order

The new judge presiding over the James Holmes trial unsealed the highly coveted search and arrest warrants in the case on Thursday, providing the media with new details about the high-profile Colorado movie theater shooting.

In response to a letter from the Reporters Committee, a federal appeals court has taken a critical first step toward unsealing an opinion in a high-profile Washington, D.C. corruption case.

The appellate court treated the letter as a motion to intervene and unseal part of the record. The court ordered the parties to respond and suggest redactions to its opinion within 30 days.

A New York judge has signed a subpoena requiring a Fox News reporter to testify in Colorado about who gave her confidential information about a notebook James Holmes sent to his psychiatrist days before he allegedly opened fire on a crowded movie theater last July, killing 12 people.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington issued several secret orders in a completely sealed case this week, as part of an investigation into D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s 2010 campaign.

The case involves a probe into businessman Jeffrey E. Thompson, as reported by The Washington Post and other media sources. Thompson is alleged to have run a secret campaign for Gray, without abiding by campaign-finance disclosure laws or revealing the campaign to the public.

In the first decision ever in Virginia to address the issue of moot arguments, the state Supreme Court decided Thursday that a judge incorrectly denied a local newspaper access to trial exhibits in a 2011 child murder case.

The justices also ruled that the case was not moot despite the fact that the contested documents sought by the Newport News Daily Press were released to the public two years ago.

A Washington, D.C. trial judge declined to explain in a hearing Wednesday why he will continue to keep under seal courtroom transcripts and records regarding an investigation into the 2010 trial of the man found guilty of murdering Chandra Levy.

Government investigators in the WikiLeaks probe can access Twitter users’ account information, a federal appeals court ruled earlier this week. Court records explaining why the accounts were subpoenaed will also remain sealed, according to the ruling.

Supporting documents can remain hidden when filed in a court case that settles before a decision is reached, according to a ruling last week by the Washington state Supreme Court.

According to the state constitution, “justice in all cases shall be administered openly,” creating a presumption of public access to court documents in most cases. The state’s courts had previously interpreted that part of the constitution to apply only to documents that were “part of the administration of justice.”

Two newspapers can now argue for the unsealing of settlement documents in a secretive fracking lawsuit, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled Friday.

Despite a judge recently modifying a gag order in the case of alleged theater shooter James Holmes, journalists are having a difficult time accessing records to report on the high-profile case.

“We get lots of tiny bits and pieces and have to paste these parts together to make sense out of what seems like a senseless mass shooting,” Denver reporter Rick Sallinger said.