Soc. of Professional Journalists v. Sec. of Labor, Civ. No. C-85-0070W
| Decision Date | 21 August 1985 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. C-85-0070W,C-85-0166W. |
| Citation | 616 F. Supp. 569 |
| Parties | SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS, a Utah non-profit corporation, KUTV, Inc., KSL Radio and Television, KTVX T.V., KUED, KALL, the Kearns-Tribune Corporation, Deseret News Publishing Company, the Ogden Standard Examiner, the Logan Herald Journal, Associated Press, United Press International, and National Broadcasting Company, Plaintiffs, v. The SECRETARY OF LABOR, Defendant. EMERY MINING CORPORATION, a Utah corporation, Plaintiff, v. The UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF LABOR, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Utah |
Samuel O. Gaufin, David L. Deisley, Patrick A. Shea, Salt Lake City, Utah, for Society of Professional Journalists.
James B. Lee, Raymond S. Etcheverry, Salt Lake City, Utah, for Emery Min. Corp.
Joseph W. Anderson, Asst. U.S. Atty., Salt Lake City, Utah, Timothy M. Biddle, Washington, D.C., for Secretary of Labor.
Arthur F. Sandack, Salt Lake City, Utah, Michael H. Holland, Earl R. Pfeffer, United Mine Workers of America, Washington, D.C., for United Mine Workers.
This matter is before the court on the defendant Secretary's motion for summary judgment. The motion was orally argued on May 9, 1985. The plaintiffs (other than Emery Mining Co.)1 were represented by Patrick A. Shea and David L. Deisley. The defendant Secretary was represented by Joseph W. Anderson and Alan Yamamoto. The matter was taken under advisement, and the court has since carefully reviewed the memoranda submitted by counsel and various authorities that bear on the issue involved in the motion. Being now fully advised, the court renders the following decision.
On December 19, 1984, a fire broke out in the Wilberg Mine, a coal mine near Price, Utah. The fire killed 27 miners. On December 31, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) launched an investigation into the cause of the fire. As part of the investigation, MSHA decided to conduct formal hearings and asked several people to give sworn testimony to be taken down verbatim by a court reporter. MSHA invited several groups to send non-testifying representatives to the hearings, but closed the hearings to the press and the public. The hearings began on January 21, 1985.
When the plaintiffs, who are various news-reporting organizations, discovered that they were being excluded from the hearings, they brought this action. They demanded access to the formal hearings then being conducted by MSHA personnel in Price, Utah. The plaintiffs asked for a temporary restraining order to prevent MSHA from conducting the formal hearings behind closed doors. They asked that MSHA be enjoined from continuing the hearings unless a pool reporter was allowed to be present. On January 25, 1985, after a brief hearing, this court issued the requested temporary restraining order. A pool reporter presented himself at the hearings in Price and requested admittance. The MSHA personnel conducting the hearing thereupon recessed the hearings pending the preliminary injunction hearing this court had scheduled.
The preliminary injunction hearing was held on February 1, 1985. In addition to the plaintiffs and the defendant Secretary, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) were represented at the hearing. The UMWA moved to intervene in the proceedings, and that motion was later granted. Following the preliminary injunction hearing, this court took the matter under advisement.
On February 8, this court issued a preliminary injunction which differed from the temporary restraining order. Under the terms of the preliminary injunction, the hearings could be closed if the participants were limited to representatives of MSHA, the Utah Industrial Commission, and the UMWA. If anyone besides representatives of these groups, the witness, and the court reporter were allowed to be present, the hearing would have to be open to the press and the public.
The operator of the Wilberg Mine, Emery Mining Co., was dissatisfied at being excluded from the hearings and brought a separate action against the Secretary of Labor. On February 14, 1985, this court consolidated Emery Mining's case with this case and modified the preliminary injunction to allow Emery Mining to be among those who could participate in the closed hearings. The hearings were resumed with personnel from MSHA, the Utah State Industrial Commission, the UMWA, and Emery Mining all present and participating. The press and the public were excluded. The hearing were completed several months ago.2
The present motion for summary judgment is centered on one issue: whether the Constitution or federal law requires that the formal fact-finding hearings conducted by MSHA be open to the press and public. The defendant Secretary argues that summary judgment must be granted in his favor. He claims that he is not obligated by either federal statute or the United States Constitution to allow the press or the public to attend hearings conducted by MSHA.
The plaintiffs, in response, claim that the constitutional guarantees of free speech and freedom of the press require this type of hearing to be open to the press and the public. They also claim that hearings of the type conducted by MSHA in Price must be public under 30 U.S.C. § 813(b). This court holds that there is a constitutionally protected right of access to formal administrative proceedings of this type. Therefore, the summary judgment motion is denied.
The plaintiffs argue strenuously that there is a statutory requirement under 30 U.S.C. § 813(b) that any formal hearings conducted by MSHA to investigate coal mine accident must be public. However, the language of § 813(b) does not support the plaintiffs' argument. It is permissive language, not mandatory.
The pertinent part of § 813(b) states that the Secretary may conduct public hearings.
The plaintiffs also argue that § 813(b) suggests that Congress intended all investigatory hearings into mine accidents to be conducted formally and in public. While it is unclear whether that was Congress's intent or not, it is clear that that intent is not embodied in the statutory language. The Secretary is not required to hold all mine accident investigation hearings as public hearings under § 813(b).
The United States Constitution does not expressly require either Congress or the Executive to hold any of their meetings in public. There is also no common-law right to attend meetings of government bodies. See Note, Open Meeting Statutes: The Press Fights for the "Right to Know," 75 Harv.L.Rev. 1199, 1203 (1962). Indeed, the tradition in England was to hold legislative debate in secret and to prohibit publication of legislative proceedings. See id.; Watkins, Open Meetings Under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, 38 Ark.L.Rev. 268, 271 (1984). This tradition was exported to colonial America. See Watkins, supra, at 271.
The tradition of closed legislative proceedings resulted in both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention conducting their proceedings in secret. See id. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Framers of the Constitution did not include an express provision in the Constitution that required Congress to deliberate in public. Even though not constitutionally required, it was not long before both the House and Senate began to hold their sessions in public on a regular basis. Id. The Senate has done so since 1794, and the House since the War of 1812. Id. The increasingly important committee sessions, however, have been routinely open to the public only since the mid-1970's. Id.
Although Congress is not expressly required to hold open meetings by the United States Constitution, thirty-four of the states do have express constitutional requirements that their state legislature meet in public. See Note, supra, at 1203. In the other states, the legislative sessions are open by custom. Id. None of the states, however, require by an express constitutional provision that any meetings or proceedings other than legislative sessions be open to the public.
Although the executive branches of the various state governments and the federal government are not expressly required by constitutional provision to open their proceedings, they are required to hold some of their meetings in public by law. All fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government have some form of a "government in the sunshine" act. See Watkins, supra, at 268. These acts have never been held to be constitutionally required, however, and derive from vigorous lobbying of legislative bodies by the news media rather than any action in the courts. See Watkins, supra, at 272.
Although legislatures have generally been more active in promoting a right of access than the courts, the courts have been active in finding a constitutional right of access in one area. The area is that of judicial proceedings. The sixth amendment gives only the defendant the right to a public trial; it does not give anyone other than a criminal defendant standing to assert the right. See U.S. Const. amend. VI. However, the Supreme Court has found that the press and public have a right of access to criminal trials even where the defendant expressly waives...
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