Opinion ID: 391003
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the procedures to be followed in the supplemental proceedings

Text: 78 We contemplate that on remand the district court will review its decision to unseal the documents. In doing so, the court should bear in mind: the Supreme Court's injunction that judicial officers attempt to minimize the intrusiveness of document searches; 120 and this court's determination, on the basis of the record now before us, that the seal on the documents at issue should be retained, absent substantial factors weighing in favor of public access. 79 The record does not permit us to determine how the trial judge's analysis of the generalized interests at stake differed from our own, nor whether he may have justified disclosure on the basis of the particularized factors we suggest or on some other basis. If, upon reconsideration in light of our analysis, the trial judge determines to abide by his unsealing order in whole or in part, the reasons relied upon should be identified in a supplemental rationale with specific reference to the particular documents or group of documents to which each reason is applicable. 80 This supplemental rationale should be supplied to the parties, including the Church. The defendants on their own behalf and the Church on behalf of itself and its constituent members may then, by motion for reconsideration and accompanying affidavit, contest the reasons given in the supplemental rationale and articulate any particularized privacy interest they wish to assert with respect to a document that is to be released. The district court may then grant or deny the motions in whole or in part. It may be that where both the public interest in access and the private interest in non-disclosure are strong, partial or redacted disclosure would satisfy both interests. Such portions of the supplemental rationale, responses thereto and any order on reconsideration that are revealing of the contents of the documents at issue should be filed under seal. The record of the supplemental proceedings should then be transmitted to this court where our consideration of the orders will continue. 121