On April 27, the Alliance joined a letter to the U.S. Supreme Court that advocates for changes to a proposed rule about sealing judicial records. The letter, written by the Reporters Committee, suggests reasonable changes to the proposed rule that would ensure documents are sealed only when there is a compelling need and requiring the request to be narrowly tailored to meet that compelling need. It also suggests a strong presumption in favor of public access to records as well as requiring the party trying to seal documents specify a timeframe for the sealing of records. Narrowly drawing the rules for sealing documents is important, because better guidelines will give the public greater access to judicial records.
Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.
