Access & Freedom of Information

Since September 11, government officials increasingly have attempted to shield government activity from the press and public by withholding documents and holding proceedings behind closed doors. Both criminal and civil litigants have stepped up efforts to seal documents filed in court cases, and some cases do not even appear on the public docket.

Since its founding, LSKS has been at the forefront of efforts to define and defend constitutional and statutory rights of access to information of great importance to the public. Among other things, LSKS regularly:

• secures access to court proceedings and records,

• represents media organizations in efforts to videotape and photograph judicial proceedings, and

• obtains government documents under the Freedom of Information Act and state open records laws.

The firm has achieved victories for its clients in several of the most highly publicized such cases of recent years:

• During the criminal trial of I. Lewis (“Scooter”) Libby, LSKS successfully represented a coalition including the major broadcast networks, The Associated Press, CNN, USA TODAY, and The Washington Post in obtaining access to the audiotapes of Mr. Libby’s grand jury testimony as soon as they had been played to the jury. 

• On behalf of The Associated Press, LSKS obtained a decision in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that required the Department of Defense to release the names and other identifying information of the detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

• On behalf of another media coalition, LSKS obtained a landmark decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Martha Stewart’s criminal trial articulating a broad First Amendment right of access to jury selection proceedings.

• LSKS represented coalitions of media entities that successfully persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to reverse its order sealing portions of the record and oral argument and to order nearly immediate access to the exhibits introduced in the first September 11-related prosecution, United States v. Moussaoui, and represented Court TV and C-SPAN in their efforts to televise the trial.

Click here for a sample of some of the cases LSKS lawyers have handled, organized geographically.