Closed courtrooms

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Georgia's high court incorrectly upheld a trial judge's decision that the public could be barred from jury selection in a drug trial, ruling that jury selection in criminal trials is presumptively open and judges must consider alternatives to closure.

An Illinois judge has decided that a hearing during which prosecutors describe their case against a police officer charged with drowning his third wife will be open to the public, Chicago's BreakingNewsCenter reported.

The Washington Post has asked for the transcripts of the closed hearings that led to the dismissal of the government's case against five former Blackwater employees accused of killing Iraqi civilians, Politico reports.

Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, the judge who threw out the charges against the five former employees on Dec. 31, had previously rejected the Post's request that the hearings be opened to the media.

The Justice Department has asked a judge to close a Jan. 7 hearing in the prosecution of five security guards charged with killing more than a dozen Iraqi civilians, The National Law Journal reported. The security guards worked for Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe, at the time of the shootings.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., today refused The Washington Post’s request to open the pretrial proceedings in the manslaughter prosecution of five security guards who were charged in an attack that left more than a dozen civilians dead in Baghdad.

The security guards were working for Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe, in 2007 when they allegedly participated in the unprovoked attack that killed 14 civilians and wounded 20 more.

A Washington state judge overseeing a criminal case against another judge excluded the press from the courtroom during deposition testimony Monday, The News Tribune in Tacoma reported.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. this week decided to exclude the public from oral arguments concerning the legality of military detentions, The Blog of Legal Times reports.  

A California dentist on trial for allegedly fondling more than a dozen patients has moved to exclude the press from the entirety of his trial, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Michael Rothschild, attorney for defendant Mark Anderson, filed a one-sentence motion asking the court to “exclude all media from all trial proceedings, including but not limited to jury selection, opening statement and witness testimony, in this matter.”

A Louisiana appeals court ruled this week that the juvenile court proceedings of one of the teenagers involved in the high-profile "Jena Six" case was improperly closed to the public.

In response to a media group’s push for greater access to a sweeping public corruption investigation in El Paso, Texas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas agreed Tuesday to make available some redacted transcripts, but opposed any broader order forcing transparency in the case.