Opinion ID: 2736929
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Overview of the Logic and Experience Test

Text: In Bone-Club, 128 Wn.2d 254, we articulated a five-step inquiry that a court must consider before closing proceedings to the public. 2 But soon after Bone-Club, it 2 The five step Bone-Club analysis is: 1. The proponent of closure or sealing must make some showing [of a compelling interest], and where that need is based on a right other than an accused's right to a fair trial, the proponent must show a 'serious and imminent threat' to that right. 2. Anyone present when the closure motion is made must be given an opportunity to object to the closure. 3. The proposed method for curtailing open access must be the least restrictive means available for protecting the threatened interests. 4. The court must weigh the competing interests of the proponent of closure and the public. 3 No. 85809-8 (Wiggins, J., concurring in result) became apparent that trial judges did not consider routine procedures to be closures and so did not conduct a Bone-Club analysis before using sealed questionnaires or closing parts of voir dire. In an effort to provide guidance to trial and appellate judges, a plurality of this court adopted the logic and experience test for determining whether the public trial right attaches to a particular proceeding. Sublett, 176 Wn.2d at 73. The Sublett plurality borrowed the experience and logic test from a 1986 United States Supreme Court case, Press-Enter. Co. v. Superior Court, 478 U.S. 1, 13-14, 106 S. Ct. 2735, 92 L. Ed. (1986), finding the test to be desirable because it allows the trial court to consider the actual proceeding at issue for what it is, without having to force every situation into predefined factors. Sublett, 176 Wn.2d at 73. Consistent with its name, the experience and logic test has two parts. The experience prong determines whether the place and process have historically been open to the press and general public. Press, 478 U.S. at 8. The logic prong determines whether public access plays a significant positive role in the functioning of the particular process in question. /d. If the answer to both questions is yes, the right to public trial attaches and the court must analyze the proposed closure using the five Bone-Club factors. Sublett, 176 Wn.2d at 73. 5. The order must be no broader in its application or duration than necessary to serve its purpose. Bone-Club, 128 Wn.2d at 258-59 (alteration in original) (quoting Allied Daily Newspapers of Wash. v. Eikenberry, 121 Wn.2d 205, 210-11, 848 P.2d 1258 (1993)). 4 No. 85809-8 (Wiggins, J., concurring in result)