Civil cases

A federal judge in California conducted an entire trial this week behind closed doors, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The public has a right to know the details of pending charges and the government's evidence against Guantanamo Bay detainees who are challenging their detention, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

The Supreme Court today declined to accept review of an appellate court ruling that has allowed all records in a federal employment discrimination case to be hidden from the public for seven years.

The Court offered no explanation for its refusal to accept the case, New York Law Publishing Company v. Doe.

The California Court of Appeal yesterday ordered a lower court to vacate an unprecedented order that prevented The Orange County Register from reporting on testimony in a lawsuit involving its parent company, Freedom Communications, Inc.

A lawyer investigating a grand jury leak turned to Pennsylvania state legislative staffers to get the cell phone numbers of at least eight reporters already subpoenaed in the case, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow said it was a routine constituent service for his staff to help attorney Sal Cognetti find cell numbers of reporters subpoenaned in an investigation involving his client.

A federal judge last week ordered Google to hand over a roster of user data on videos viewed on YouTube, in an effort to help Viacom shore up its lawsuit against the search-engine giant.

The Scranton Times-Tribune asked Lackawanna County Judge Robert A. Mazzoni to recuse himself from a libel case brought against the newspaper by two former county commissioners.

After an entire civil case was closed to the public, the Charlotte Observer filed a motion in Union County Superior Court seeking access to the file, alleging its closure was improper. The court did not provide a reason for sealing the file; After requesting a copy of the records, the Observer was given "a single sheet of paper with a handwritten note saying the file had been sealed in its entirety," an Observer article stated.

A new court rule adopted by the Nevada Supreme Court places strict limits on a judge's ability to seal a civil case in the state, allowing the practice only if the "specified sealing or redaction is justified by identified compelling privacy or safety interests that outweight the public interest in access to the court record." While that leaves a great deal of wiggle room for a judge who wants to seal a case, it does at least establish a standard for sealing, and makes clear that the presumption