Sealed records

An Ohio trial judge said Friday that documents in a criminal proceeding would remain sealed at the victim's request, even though The Cincinnati Enquirer has asked the state supreme court to order the judge to unseal the records.

The Cincinnati Enquirer has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to force a trial judge to unseal documents in a criminal case, claiming she did not have sufficient cause for keeping it from the public.

Video recordings of the contentious trial that struck down California’s ban on same-sex marriage should be released to the public, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered Monday, ruling that there is no compelling reason that the tapes should remain sealed.

News media attempts to gain public access to key court records in a now-dismissed Youngstown, Ohio, criminal case continue, with a flurry of recent filings in two separate courts.

A U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Fla., has declined to unseal documents sought by ESPN relating to investigations into professional tennis players, ruling privacy interests outweigh the public’s right to access.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in its June 24 decision in U.S. v. Brice that the public has a presumptive right of access to material witness proceedings. However, it also ruled that records should not be disclosed if they contain significant private information relating to a victim’s well-being.

The New Jersey Supreme Court clarified two exemptions to the state’s open records act Tuesday in its ruling in Vasil Kovalcik v. Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office.

The court examined the scope and application of two provisions that exempt certain government records from disclosure: one regarding records deemed confidential by a court order and another regarding access to government employee personnel records.

A state trial court judge in Alabama has sealed court records in the high-profile capital murder case of Amy Bishop, a former University of Alabama in Huntsville biology professor charged with killing three university colleagues.

A federal judge on Thursday confirmed his decision to allow unclassified, “sensitive” information to be withheld from the leak trial of Thomas Drake, a former high-ranking National Security Agency official.