Lawyers Author Article in ‘Communications Lawyer’ on Recent Cases that Address Timely Access to Court Records

San Francisco Partner Rachel Matteo-Boehm, Washington Partner Heather Goldman and San Francisco Counsel Katherine Keating authored an article in the summer edition of Communications Lawyer concerning three recent First Amendment court victories addressing the requirement that access to newly-filed civil complaints be timely. As the article explains, “collectively, these three cases address a number of important issues relating to access to court records.” Matteo-Boehm, Goldman and Keating also authored a second, companion article addressing another key issue litigated as part of these cases: whether federal abstention doctrines can be used to block federal court litigation seeking to redress unconstitutional state court access procedures. As noted in the companion article, “[i]n practical terms, the issue is whether a lawsuit seeking to address systemic violations of the First Amendment right of access by a state court can be brought in federal court, or whether parties seeking to prevent such violations must instead be left to enforce their rights in the very state courts that are denying those rights.”