The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City upheld an order to seal transcripts from a 1995 fraud trial involving boxing promoter Don King that ended in a mistrial. Star-News for publishing a story based on a sealed document. In the trial, a jury had found Conoco Inc. negligent in cleaning up gasoline spills. Mitchell was convicted of contempt of court in December 1997. The New York Times Co., owner of the Wilmington paper, is appealing.
Freeman expects a hearing in the fall.
Sager is quick to point out that the press does win some court-access cases. We are seeing more closed proceedings, but we don't lose all the time. But at The Freedom Forum, McMasters contends that many newspapers decline to do battle. F. Dennis Hale, a professor in the department of journalism at Ohio's Bowling Green State University, found some evidence that judges do support First Amendment rights. His survey of recently retired state supreme-court justices was designed to gauge their attitudes toward freedom of expression.