Defendant's Attorney: Vermont Attorney General's Office et al.

Description: Defendants, administrators and clerks of the Vermont Superior Court, appeal from the judgment and permanent injunction of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont (Christina Reiss, J.) in favor of Plaintiffs, news and related media organizations. Beginning in 2020, when Vermont courts transitioned to electronic filing, the Superior Court adopted a policy of denying public access to newly filed civil complaints until a court clerk had reviewed them to ensure that they were signed, they did not contain unredacted confidential information, that they complied with technical requirements under the court’s rules, and that they did not show unredacted filers’ notes. Plaintiffs sued, challenging this practice as a violation of their First Amendment right of access to court documents. After a bench trial, the district court issued judgment in Plaintiffs’ favor, holding that Vermont’s pre-access review process violated Plaintiffs’ First Amendment right of access to judicial documents, and issued a permanent injunction barring Defendants from withholding complaints until completion of a pre- access review. We agree with the Plaintiffs and the district court that Vermont’s practice in the period reviewed by the trial court violated Plaintiffs’ First Amendment right of access, but we agree with the Defendants that the terms of the permanent injunction were not supported by the court’s findings. We accordingly AFFIRM the district court’s judgment to the extent it found that the practice it reviewed violated the First Amendment, but we VACATE the permanent injunction to the extent that it barred the Defendants from engaging in any review for unredacted confidential information before permitting access to the complaints.

Outcome: Remanded for further proceedings.

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