Court Opinion

ID: 9624183
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:53:27.573506+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:40.615428
License: Public Domain

Miller, J.,
concurring: While I join with the majority and agree that the resolution of this case is legally correct, I regret what must inevitably follow, and what we were informed on oral argument has already happened in Douglas County: the sealing of all records pertaining to the filing of complaints and the issuance of warrants until after an arrest is made. This delay in the disclosure of those documents to reporters will result in delaying the accurate reporting of the news to the public.
The old practice of disclosing all such matters to the courthouse reporter, and relying upon the reporter to treat them as confidential until an arrest was made, was not strictly in compliance with K.S.A. 21-3827; but it gave the reporter the background information so that the news item could be prepared and published promptly following arrest. Courthouse reporters were regarded as special people, and were treated as such.
Reporters must all be treated the same by public officials; public records cannot be opened to one reporter and closed to another. See Gora, The Rights of Reporters — The Basic ACLU Guide to a Reporter’s Rights, pp. 73, 75, 229, 230 (1974). Thus this decision, based on the determination of one reporter and one newspaper to publish one perhaps obscure item, will have a direct effect upon all Kansas courthouse reporters, and will in some instances result in a slowing of the news-gathering process. It marks the passing of an era.
Holmes, J., joins in the foregoing concurring opinion.