California’s court bureaucracy used public funds and a bagful of tricks to fight press access before losing on a legal slam-dunk last month. This news service is now asking for the legal fees it racked up on the long road to vindicating a press tradition in the courts of America.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California. (Courthouse News photo / Bill Girdner)
LOS ANGELES (CN) After ten years of legal trench warfare between the court bureaucracy of California and this news service, the First Amendment right to see new court filings upon receipt has been established and the bill has come due.
While a court clerk fought to the last ditch against press access, a box on the counter in Ventura’s state court stood as a symbol of access past and future.
Screenshot of U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee, during an interview with the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.
LOS ANGELES (CN) On the counter in Ventura Superior Court sat the ghost of access past, a white, plastic press box.
It came from the days of old when new cases were filed in paper and the local press was strong. But in 2011, when Courthouse News first challenged the Ventura court clerk on First Amendment grounds, it sat useless on the counter.
After years of legal contest with the huge Southern California court of Orange County, a deal has been struck and the press will once again have access to the new civil cases when they cross the counter, one that was physical and is now virtual.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California. (Courthouse News photo / Bill Girdner)
SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) A long time ago, in late 2002, a supervisor at the superior court in Orange County told a group of reporters they would no longer be seeing the new civil complaints at the end of the day.
The clerk had decided to scan the documents first. The supervisor, named Connie, told the reporters they would see the new cases the next morning. But it did not work out that way.