Opinion ID: 200358
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Case Law Applying First Amendment Standards

Text: 30 The full scope of the constitutional right of access is not settled in the law. Courts have evaluated individual cases when they arose and have determined whether each fell within the category of judicial activities to which the right applies. See generally D. Paul & R.J. Ovelmen, Access, in 2 Communications Law 7 (Practicing Law Institute 1999) (classifying case law according to type of proceeding or document at issue). This process of case-by-case classification, based on the limited Supreme Court precedents, has produced a list of proceedings and records that are covered by a First Amendment right of access and a list of those where no such right attaches. 31 Supreme Court precedent clearly extends the First Amendment right to cover access to criminal trials, Richmond Newspapers, 448 U.S. at 580, 100 S.Ct. 2814, including the voir dire of potential jurors, Press-Enterprise I, 464 U.S. at 509-10, 104 S.Ct. 819, and trial-like preliminary hearings in criminal cases, El Vocero v. Puerto Rico, 508 U.S. 147, 149-50, 113 S.Ct. 2004, 124 L.Ed.2d 60 (1993) (per curiam); Press-Enterprise II, 478 U.S. at 10, 106 S.Ct. 2735. See also Globe Newspaper, 457 U.S. at 610-11, 102 S.Ct. 2613 (overturning law requiring mandatory closing of criminal trials during testimony of minors who were victims of sexual abuse). 32 Beyond these few Supreme Court cases, lower courts have extended the right to various types of documents. This court has found the right applicable to legal memoranda filed with the court by parties in criminal cases, see Providence Journal, 293 F.3d at 11, and to records of completed criminal cases that ended without conviction, see Pokaski, 868 F.2d at 505. See also Hurley, 920 F.2d at 97 (construing rules to require presumptive access to lists of jurors). 33 Courts have also held that no right of access applies to some other types of proceedings and documents. The paradigmatic example is the grand jury, whose proceedings are conducted in secret. See Press-Enterprise II, 478 U.S. at 9, 106 S.Ct. 2735 (citing Douglas Oil Co. v. Petrol Stops N.W., 441 U.S. 211, 218, 99 S.Ct. 1667, 60 L.Ed.2d 156 (1979)) (grand jury is classic example of properly closed proceeding); Fed.R.Crim.P. 6(e) (establishing general rule of grand jury secrecy with enumerated narrow exceptions); cf. Hurley, 920 F.2d at 94 (noting lack of public access to deliberations of petit jurors). The secrecy of the grand jury is so important that this court and others have found no right of access attaches to distinct hearings and documents because they could reveal secret grand jury information. E.g., Pokaski, 868 F.2d at 509; In re Motions of Dow Jones & Co., 142 F.3d 496, 500-03 (D.C.Cir.1998); United States v. Smith, 123 F.3d 140, 143 (3d Cir.1997). Courts have also rejected claims based on First Amendment rights of access to other types of documents, at least in certain circumstances. These have included discovery materials, Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, 467 U.S. 20, 37, 104 S.Ct. 2199, 81 L.Ed.2d 17 (1984); Anderson v. Cryovac, Inc., 805 F.2d 1, 13 (1st Cir.1986), withdrawn plea agreements, El-Sayegh, 131 F.3d at 161, affidavits supporting search warrants, Baltimore Sun, 886 F.2d at 64-65, and presentence reports, United States v. Corbitt, 879 F.2d 224, 228 (7th Cir.1989). 34 Two courts of appeals have considered the First Amendment right of access to documents concerning the CJA. In both cases, however, the documents at issue related to CJA payments to attorneys, which raise few privacy issues, rather than to the CJA eligibility documents filed by defendants. The results these courts reached were not entirely consistent. The Tenth Circuit found no First Amendment right of access to the vouchers or backup materials that attorneys submit to receive payment under the CJA. Gonzales, 150 F.3d at 1250. In a case concerned with access to the barebones data found in attorneys' CJA vouchers 4 but not the more detailed backup materials, the Second Circuit found a constitutional right of access. United States v. Suarez, 880 F.2d 626, 630-31 (2d Cir.1989); cf. United States v. Ellis, 90 F.3d 447, 450-51 (11th Cir.1996) (avoiding deciding First Amendment issue in CJA case by resting decision on textual interpretation of regulations). 35 As these cases demonstrate, the First Amendment does not grant the press or the public an automatic constitutional right of access to every document connected to judicial activity. Rather, courts must apply the Press-Enterprise II standards to a particular class of documents or proceedings and determine whether the right attaches to that class.