Alliance Supports Open Judicial Records

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.