Globe Newspaper Co. v. Pokaski

• Decision Date: 27 April 1988
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 87-2140-T.
• Citation: 684 F. Supp. 1132
• Parties: GLOBE NEWSPAPER COMPANY, Gerard M. O'Neill, and Diego Ribadeneira, Plaintiffs, v. Daniel F. POKASKI, Clerk-Magistrate for Criminal Business of the Suffolk Superior Court, and John J. Desmond, Clerk-Magistrate for Suffolk Superior Court, West Roxbury Division, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

684 F. Supp. 1132

GLOBE NEWSPAPER COMPANY, Gerard M. O'Neill, and Diego Ribadeneira, Plaintiffs, v. Daniel F. POKASKI, Clerk-Magistrate for Criminal Business of the Suffolk Superior Court, and John J. Desmond, Clerk-Magistrate for Suffolk Superior Court, West Roxbury Division, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 87-2140-T.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

April 27, 1988.

E. Susan Garsh, Jonathan M. Albano, Joanne D'Alcomo, Bingham, Dana & Gould, Boston, Mass., for plaintiffs.

Judith Fabricant, H. Reed Witherby, Asst. Atty. Gen., Boston, Mass., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM

TAURO, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, the Globe Newspaper Company and two Boston Globe reporters, Gerard M. O'Neill and Diego Ribadeneira, have challenged the constitutionality of a Massachusetts statute that limits their access to criminal trial records.

I.

The challenged statute, Mass.Gen.L. ch. 276, § 100C,¹ among other things, seals the records of any criminal case in which the defendant has been found not guilty. The statute is intended to protect the reputations and privacy of acquitted criminal defendants. It accomplishes this goal by "protecting individuals from unnecessary and overbroad dissemination of criminal record information." Commonwealth v. Vickey, 381 Mass. 762, 765, 412 N.E.2d 877 (1980).

As part of a Globe investigation concerning the number and disposition of cases involving alleged sexual offenses against children, O'Neill sought to review relevant docket sheets. Docket sheets generally contain the defendant's name, the charge, the dates of hearings and other significant events, including disposition of the charges. O'Neill alleges that, in certain cases, the docket sheets contained only the docket number and the word "sealed" and, therefore, no substantive information was available to him. Similarly, Ribadeneira alleges that he was unable to verify a tip concerning the disposition of drug charges against a Boston police officer, because the docket and file were sealed.

Asserting that § 100C imposes a blanket seal, without providing an opportunity for particularized evaluations in individual cases, plaintiffs argue that the statute is inconsistent with the constitutional right of access to judicial proceedings guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. This court agrees.

II.

The Supreme Court first recognized the public's right of access to judicial proceedings in Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555, 100 S.Ct. 2814, 65 L.Ed.2d 973 (1980). Holding that the trial court erred in closing a murder trial, seven justices² agreed that the First Amendment protects the public from being summarily or arbitrarily barred from observing trials. "Absent an overriding interest articulated in findings," wrote Chief Justice Burger, "the trial of a criminal case must be open to the public." 448 U.S. at 581, 100 S.Ct. at 2829 (plurality opinion).

Subsequent Supreme Court opinions have further explained the nature of this access right. In Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court, 457 U.S. 596, 102 S.Ct. 2613, 73 L.Ed.2d 248 (1982), the Court held unconstitutional a Massachusetts statute that excluded the public from all trials of sexual offenses involving a minor victim. Importantly, the Court's decision turned on the fact that the trial closure law—like the sealed records provision at issue here—imposed a blanket ban on public access to an entire class of trials, without creating a procedure for individualized determinations in particular cases. The Court adopted the following rule:

Where ... the State attempts to deny a right of access in order to inhibit the disclosure of sensitive information, it must be shown that the denial is necessitated by a compelling governmental interest, and is narrowly tailored to serve that interest.

457 U.S. at 606-07, 102 S.Ct. at 2619-20. The Massachusetts closure statute was not "narrowly tailored," the Court ruled, because the state interest in protecting minor victims "could be served just as well by requiring the trial court to determine on a case by case basis" whether trials should be closed. 457 U.S. at 609, 102 S.Ct. at 2621. The Court held flatly that "a mandatory rule, requiring no particularized determinations in individual cases, is unconstitutional." 457 U.S. at 611 n. 27, 102 S.Ct. at 2622 n. 27.

The Court followed the same approach in Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court, 464 U.S. 501, 104 S.Ct. 819, 78 L.Ed.2d 629 (1984) (Press-Enterprise I). In that case, the Court determined that a trial judge had violated the constitution by closing voir dire and suppressing the transcript, without attempting to limit its order to information that was actually sensitive and deserving of privacy protection, and without considering whether alternative means were available for protecting the interests and anonymity of prospective jurors.

More recently, in Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court, 478 U.S. 1, 106 S.Ct. 2735, 92 L.Ed.2d 1 (1986) (Press-Enterprise II), the Court applied the right of access to preliminary hearings in California criminal proceedings. The Court again stressed that the proceedings could not be closed "unless specific, on the record findings are made demonstrating that `closure is essential to preserve higher values and is narrowly tailored to serve that interest.'" 106 S.Ct. at 2743 (citations omitted). The Supreme Court noted that California courts "failed to consider whether alternatives short of complete closure would have protected the interests of the accused." Id.

Taken together, these cases clearly forbid a blanket closure rule. When the public has a right of access to judicial proceedings, the courtroom doors may not be closed without a particularized determination that, in the specific case under consideration, closure is the least restrictive way of protecting a compelling state interest.

III.

The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether the First Amendment right of access extends to judicial documents, such as the dockets and files at issue here. But several circuit courts—including the First Circuit—have held that the access right does cover judicial documents and records, at least in criminal proceedings. See In re Globe Newspaper Co., 729 F.2d 47, 51, 59 (1st Cir.1984) (the First Amendment right of access "has also been extended to documents filed in pretrial proceedings," and applies specifically "to bail hearings and to documents filed in support of the parties' arguments at those hearings"). Accord: In re Washington Post Co., 807 F.2d 383, 390 (4th Cir.1986) ("the First Amendment right of access applies to documents filed in connection with plea hearings and sentencing hearings in criminal cases, as well as to the hearings themselves"); United States v. Smith, 776 F.2d 1104, 1111-12 (3d Cir.1985) (public access to bill of particulars was protected by First Amendment; "although those Supreme Court cases concerned access to judicial proceedings, no reason occurs to us why their analysis does not apply as well to judicial documents"); United States v. Peters, 754 F.2d 753, 763 (7th Cir.1985) (access right of public and press to judicial records "is of constitutional magnitude through the First Amendment"); Associated Press v. United States District Court, 705 F.2d 1143, 1145 (9th Cir.1983) ("the public and press have a first amendment right of access to pretrial documents in general").³

Extending the access right to judicial records makes sense. As a practical matter, it is physically impossible for an interested individual, or even a newspaper, to monitor every proceeding scheduled in every courtroom. Realistically, the press and public must rely upon documents filed by the parties in order to understand what has taken place in court. A statute foreclosing access to these documents, and to the docket which records their filing, bars the public from the only reliable means of knowing what has occurred during the course of a proceeding.

Given the premise that the public, and the press as the public's representative, have a right to know what is going on during a court hearing, there is no reason why that right should be eliminated or subordinated merely because a verdict has been rendered. The legitimate interest of press and public in knowing what has transpired in court continues even after the proceedings have adjourned.

The rationale that supports the right of access to trial proceedings themselves, see Globe Newspaper Company v. Superior Court, 457 U.S. at 605-06, 102 S.Ct. at 2619-20, is relevant as well to the question of whether underlying court documents should be available for public scrutiny. Indeed, the public historically has had a common law right of access to judicial records. Nixon v. Warner Communications, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 597, 98 S.Ct. 1306, 1311, 55 L.Ed.2d 570 (1978) ("courts of this country recognize a general right to inspect and copy public records and documents, including judicial records and documents.") (footnote omitted); F.T.C. v. Standard Financial Management Corp., 830 F.2d 404, 408 (1st Cir.1987) (presumption of public access exists, in civil proceedings, for "materials on which a court relies in determining the litigants' substantive rights"). And, public scrutiny of criminal trials can only be informed and enhanced by public access to related records, which "are often important to a full understanding of the way in which `the judicial process and the government as a whole' are functioning," Associated Press v. United States District Court, 705 F.2d at 1145.

The argument for public access to court documents is particularly strong where, as here, the subject of press attention is the performance of the judicial system itself. As the Supreme Court has stated, "public access to criminal trials permits the public to participate in and serve as a check upon the judicial process—an essential component in our structure of self-government." Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court, 457 U.S. at...