Court Opinion

ID: 9374817
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-02-24 00:00:44.375077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:53.295513
License: Public Domain

Case 1:22-mc-00100-BAH Document 14 *SEALED*                     Filed 02/23/23 Page 1 of 32

                            UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
                            FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 IN RE APPLICATION OF THE NEW YORK
 TIMES COMPANY AND CHARLIE                            Miscellaneous Action No. 22-100 (BAH)
 SAVAGE FOR ACCESS TO CERTAIN
 DOCKETS, ORDERS, LEGAL BRIEFING,                     (consolidated with
 AND ARGUMENT TRANSCRIPTS                             Miscellaneous Action No. 22-104)
 ANCILLARY TO JANUARY 6 GRAND
 JURY PROCEEDINGS                                     Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell

                                                      REDACTED VERSION

                                  MEMORANDUM OPINION

       The sealing ofjudicial decisions and ancillary judicial records relied on to resolve matters

pending before the Court is anathema, "reflect[ing] the antipathy of a democratic country to the

notion of 'secret law,' inaccessible to those who are governed by that law." In re Leopold to

Unseal Certain Elec. Surveillance Applications & Orders ("Leopold"), 964 F.3d 1121, 1127

(D.C. Cir. 2020). Indeed, "the issuance of public opinions is core to the transparency of the

court's decisionmaking process," id. at 1128 (internal citation omitted), and, as such, is "a

fundamental norm of our judicial system: that judges' decisions and their rationales must be

available to the public," id. at 1130. Public access to judicial records is '"important to

maintaining the integrity and legitimacy of an independent Judicial Branch,'" id. at 1127

(quoting MetLife, Inc. v. Fin. Stability Oversight Council, 865 F.3d 661, 663 (D.C. Cir. 2017)),

and serves "to produce an informed and enlightened public opinion" as well as "to safeguard

against any attempt to employ our courts as instruments of persecution, to promote the search for

truth, and to assure confidence in judicial remedies," id. The courts have long recognized that

the press plays a critical role in facilitating public access and acknowledged that "[o]ne of the

demands of a democratic society is that the public should know what goes on in courts by being

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