High court refuses to block release of church abuse records

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a Catholic diocese’s second request on Monday to stay a Connecticut Supreme Court’s order to unseal court records related to dozens of clergy sex abuse suits.

The case, Rosado v. Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp., involves more than 12,000 pages of documents related to lawsuits against several priests. On Aug. 25, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg rejected the diocese’s request for an emergency stay until the Court ruled on whether to review the Connecticut court’s decision. The diocese then refiled the request with Justice Antonin Scalia. In accordance with Supreme Court tradition, Scalia referred the second stay request to the full Court.

The diocese’s request to review the underlying case is still pending. But today’s refusal to block release of the documents largely resolves a seven-year access battle waged by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Hartford Courant and The Washington Post.