Opinion ID: 2494205
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Challenge to the District Court's Unsealing Order

Text: The remaining issue in this appeal is whether the district court erred in ruling that the trial record must be unsealed. Reviewing the court's unsealing order under a deferential standard, see Siedle v. Putnam Invs., Inc., 147 F.3d 7, 10 (1st Cir.1998) (unsealing orders are reviewed only for mistake of law or abuse of discretion), we find no abuse of discretion. Decisions on the sealing of judicial documents require a balancing of interests, although the scales tilt decidedly toward transparency. The starting point must always be the common-law presumption in favor of public access to judicial records. See Nixon v. Warner Commc'ns, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 597, 98 S.Ct. 1306, 55 L.Ed.2d 570 (1978); Siedle, 147 F.3d at 9. As we have noted in prior cases, [p]ublic access to judicial records and documents allows the citizenry to `monitor the functioning of our courts, thereby insuring quality, honesty and respect for our legal system.' FTC v. Standard Fin. Mgmt. Corp., 830 F.2d 404, 410 (1st Cir.1987) (quoting In re Cont'l III. Secs. Litig., 732 F.2d 1302, 1308 (7th Cir.1984)). The presumption favoring public access, which extends to both civil and criminal trials, is not inviolate, and may on some occasions be overcome by competing interests. Siedle, 147 F.3d at 10; see also id. at 10-12 (finding abuse of discretion where unsealing order would make public information that was likely subject to the attorney-client privilege and a confidentiality agreement). That said, the presumption is nonetheless strong and sturdy, and thus `[o]nly the most compelling reasons can justify non-disclosure of judicial records.' Standard Fin. Mgmt. Corp., 830 F.2d at 410 (alteration in original) (quoting In re Knoxville News-Sentinel Co., 723 F.2d 470, 476 (6th Cir.1983)). Portions of the trial record here were initially filed in sealed form, albeit by the parties' stipulation rather than court order. [50] Following trial, the district court issued sua sponte an order to show cause why the entire record should not be filed in publicly accessible form. NOM responded with a brief arguing, inter alia, that disclosure of certain of its strategic documents included in the record would severely burden NOM's ability to effectively engage in protected political activities, and would invade the privacy of NOM's third-party service providers and contractors identified in the record and risk subjecting them to harassment. The district court found NOM's arguments unavailing and ordered the record unsealed such that it would be public in precisely the way that it would have been had live witnesses been called to testify. Nat'l Org. for Marriage, 723 F.Supp.2d at 249 n. 4. We granted an emergency motion to stay the unsealing order during the pendency of this appeal. On appeal, NOM fields two arguments for abuse of discretion. It first argues that the district court erred in unsealing the documents without a finding of true necessity. NOM's argument flips the proper analysis on its head. The presumption here favors openness, and a court need make no finding, let alone one of true necessity, in order to make the proceedings and documents in a civil trial public. Instead, it is the party seeking to keep documents sealed who must make a showing sufficient to overcome the presumption of public access. See Standard Fin. Mgmt. Corp., 830 F.2d at 411. Second, NOM suggests that the district court erred in failing to consider a number of controlling legal principles. On examination, the authorities it cites are, without exception, inapposite. [51] On the record before us, we cannot conclude that the district court abused its discretion in ordering the trial record unsealed. While NOM claims harm from disclosure of certain strategic documents, neither before the district court nor in this appeal has NOM identified any specific information that, if made public, would damage or chill its political advocacy efforts. Indeed, the documents it identifies as particularly sensitive, including a strategic planning document it terms its playbook, disclose primarily advocacy priorities and expenditures in past election cycles, and we see little among them that could advantage NOM's opponents going forward. NOM's claims that its contractors and service-providers could be subject to harassment also lack support, resting upon allegations of harassment against a vendor that performed work for supporters of California's Proposition 8. While `privacy rights of participants and third parties[ ] are among those interests which, in appropriate cases, can limit the presumptive right of access to judicial records,' Standard Fin. Mgmt. Corp., 830 F.2d at 411 (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting In re Knoxville News-Sentinel Co., 723 F.2d at 478), NOM failed to make a compelling case that the specific vendors referenced in the documents here have any reasonable privacy concerns relating to the disclosure of their business relationship with NOM.