Court Opinion

ID: 9472458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:00:34.799253+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:56.721369
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I would not object to a vacation of Judge Shadur’s judgment and a remand for a determination of the plaintiff's particularized need for the grand jury testimony. However, for the majority to find as a matter of law that particularized need does not exist in these circumstances is, to my knowledge, wholly unprecedented. The Supreme Court stated in Douglas Oil Company of California v. Petrol Stops Northwest, 441 U.S. 211, 99 S.Ct. 1667, 60 L.Ed.2d 156 (1979), that
disclosure is appropriate only in those cases where the need for it outweighs the public interest in secrecy____ [A]s the considerations justifying secrecy become less relevant, a party asserting a need for grand jury transcripts will have a lesser burden in showing justification. In sum, as so often is the situation in our jurisprudence, the court’s duty in a case of this kind is to weigh carefully the competing interests in light of the relevant circumstances and the standards announced by this Court____ Moreover, we emphasize that a court called upon to determine whether grand jury transcripts should be released necessarily is infused with substantial discretion.
Id. at 223, 99 S.Ct. at 1675 (citations omitted) (emphasis supplied).
The Supreme Court thus enunciated a balancing test to determine whether the interest in maintaining the secrecy of grand jury proceedings outweighed the interest of those seeking disclosure. Further, the Court emphasized that the district court has considerable discretion in evaluating these interests. As the Fifth Circuit stated in In re Corrugated Container Antitrust Litigation, 687 F.2d 52, 55 (5th Cir.1982), the district judge is “the best informed individual in the legal world concerning the details of the [present] litigation.” We should not undertake to usurp the discretion vested in the district court judge nor should we substitute our view for that of the district judge who, once the correct legal standard is applied, is in the better position to make a factual determination. Particularly in this case, where the public interest in maintaining secrecy is so minimal and the plaintiff, which itself represents a substantial sector of the public, has previously satisfied the district judge that its need outweighs the need for secrecy, we should be reluctant to usurp the district court’s role. Grand jury secrecy should not be upheld merely to shield these antitrust defendants when there is no other articulable policy for such secrecy. I therefore respectfully dissent.