Judge: Vermont’s Delaying Public Access to Civil Case Documents Violates 1st Amendment

A federal judge has granted an injunction against the Vermont judiciary in a legal action brought by news outlets aimed at curbing delays when seeking newly filed civil lawsuits.

The ruling issued this month by Judge Christina Reiss is the latest turn in the lawsuit brought by news outlets and other First Amendment advocates more than four years ago.

The judge added in the ruling that she would now consider whether to grant attorneys fees to cover the expenses of the lawyers who argued the case on behalf of the organizations, a figure that is expected to total more than $1 million.

Reiss, in the four-page order, wrote that the process the judiciary had used to screen lawsuits for potential confidential materials before making them publicly available delayed the release of the records and violated the First Amendment rights of the news outlets.

According to the legal action, the timely access to the filings allows for the public to understand what’s happening in the court system, provides for accountability and informs people about matters of public concern.

“Plaintiffs have a presumptive First Amendment right of access to newly filed complaints, which attaches upon the court’s receipt of such complaints,” Reiss wrote in the ruling.

Courthouse News Service, a Pasadena, California-based company, was joined by news outlets across Vermont in its lawsuit filed in May 2021 in federal court in Burlington.

Courthouse News Service, according to its website, “covers news, both national and international, that moves society and its many elements in one direction or another.”

Jonathan G. Fetterly, a California attorney who argued the case on behalf of parties bringing the action, said in a statement last week that Reiss’ ruling was a “great victory for public access” following years of “hard fought litigation.”

The parties joining in the legal action were the Vermont Press Association and the New England First Amendment Coalition, as well as the parent entities of VTDigger.org, Seven Days, the Burlington Free Press and WCAX-TV.

Other participants signing onto the case were the Vermont Community Newspaper Group, which operates weekly newspapers in several communities including Stowe, Morristown, Shelburne, South Burlington and Charlotte, and the parent company of the Rutland Herald/Barre-Montpelier Times Argus.

“This is another important victory for the public when it comes to transparency at the courts all across Vermont,” Mike Donoghue, executive director of the Vermont Press Association, said Friday of the ruling.

Teri Corsones, Vermont’s state court administrator, said in a text message Friday, “The Judiciary certainly values the public’s right to access to court filings, while also taking important steps to protect sensitive information.”

Corsones referred specific questions related to the ruling to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, which represented the judiciary in the lawsuit. In turn, the Attorney General’s Office, later Friday, referred specific questions about the ruling to judiciary officials. Leda Moloff, general counsel for the Vermont judiciary, wrote in a text late Friday that judiciary officials had no further comment.

The lawsuit has been working its way through the court system for years, including a stop at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before landing back in federal district court in Vermont earlier this year.

Courthouse News Service, in a filing more than two years ago, stated that the attorneys’ fees and costs associated with bringing the action already totaled more than $1 million.

Reiss, the judge, asked the parties to submit a briefing schedule related to attorneys’ fees by later this month regarding the issue.

This story was originally published by VTDigger and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.