In Re Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest, Inc. v. U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii

Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Date Filed: Feb. 7, 2023

Background: In December 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii adopted Criminal Local Rule 5.2, which mandates the sealing of certain records filed with the court, including sentencing statements, sentencing filings regarding a defendant’s cooperation, and competency evaluations.

The Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to invalidate portions of the district court’s rule.

Our Position: The Ninth Circuit should hold that the automatic sealing of sentencing statements, cooperation-related filings, and competency evaluations under Criminal Local Rule 5.2 is impermissible under the First Amendment and the common law.

• Judicial proceedings and records are presumptively public under the common law and the First Amendment.
• Criminal Local Rule 5.2 impermissibly mandates the automatic sealing of judicial records to which the public’s constitutional and common law rights of access apply.
• Criminal Local Rule 5.2 will hamper the press’s ability to report on criminal cases of public concern.

Quote: “When the press is denied access to judicial records in criminal cases — records that no party has asked to seal, and no judge has held should be sealed in a given case — it is the public that loses.”

Update: On March 7, 2024, the Ninth Circuit issued a memorandum opinion holding that Civil Beat lacked standing to challenge portions of Criminal Local Rule 5.2. “Because Civil Beat did not file this petition as a result of being denied access to a particular document in a particular case,” the opinion stated, “nothing in the briefing or record before us allows us to conclude that Civil Beat established it has suffered any legally protected, concrete, and particularized interest.”