Opinion ID: 479203
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Expeditious Consideration of First Amendment Claims

Text: 29 The Globe also argues that the district court erred by not expeditiously resolving the First Amendment claims brought before it. It points out that the court did not formally rule on the plaintiffs' September 26, 1985, motion to reconsider the protective order and the Globe's December 12, 1985, motion to modify the order until January 23, 1986. The January 23 order denying all motions to vacate the protective order was issued without opinion and without articulating any findings in support of the ruling. Undue delay in responding to requests for relief from protective orders may indeed constitute an infringement of the first amendment. See Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 423 U.S. 1327, 1328-29, 96 S.Ct. 251, 253, 46 L.Ed.2d 237 (1975) (Blackmun, J., opinion in chambers). We find in this case, however, that the court's responses to the challenges made to the protective orders were not untimely. Although the court did not issue a written order denying the motions until almost four months after the first motion for a reconsideration was made, the court clearly and promptly expressed during the pretrial proceedings the extent of the order and any modifications that were to be made to it. The court made its position clear as to the plaintiffs' September 26 motion at an October 3 hearing, and it issued a modified protective order on October 8 incorporating that position. As to the Globe's December 12 motion to clarify, the court's position was explained fully in the January 14 hearing and issued in order form on January 23. Under the circumstances of the pretrial proceedings in this complicated case--we count well over 100 pretrial motions with which the court had to deal--the timeliness of the court's responses to the motions on the protective orders was adequate, and the grounds for the court's conclusions were articulated sufficiently in the hearings. 30