United States v. Doe, No. 15-50259 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to seal all documents related to, or disclosing the existence of, a USSG 5K1.1 motion to reduce his sentence by five levels based on his substantial assistance in the prosecution of other offenders involved in an international drug cartel. The panel held that the circumstances in this case required the district court to seal all documents revealing defendant's cooperation and to strike references to section 5K1.1 in the docket entry text. The panel next considered the report and recommendations from the Committee on Court Administration and Case Management of the Judicial Conference of the United States concerning the protection of ongoing government investigations, cooperators, and their families. The court held that a sealed supplement in all dockets would prevent the fact of cooperation from becoming immediately apparent and also deter the illicit use of court documents to harm cooperators.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel reversed the district court’s order denying the defendant’s motion to seal all documents relating to, or disclosing the existence of, the government’s motion under U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1 to reduce the defendant’s sentence for substantial assistance in the prosecution of other offenders. The panel assumed without deciding that the public’s qualified First Amendment right of access to court documents and proceedings attached to the documents that the defendant sought to seal, and concluded that the facts of this case rebutted any resulting presumption of openness. The panel concluded that absent closure, the record established that there was a substantial probability of harm to compelling interests in the defendant’s case. These interests included risks to the defendant and his family and (as discussed in section II.A.2) risks to ongoing investigations. The panel also concluded that there were no adequate alternatives to closure. Considering the report and recommendations from the Committee on Court Administration and Case Management of the Judicial Conference of the United States concerning the protection of ongoing government investigations, cooperators, and their families, the panel wrote that a sealed supplement in all criminal dockets would prevent the fact of cooperation from becoming immediately apparent, and also deter the illicit use of court documents to harm cooperators. UNITED STATES V. DOE 3 The panel reversed the denial of the defendant’s motion to seal and the denial of his motion to strike and replace the docket entry text mentioning § 5K1.1, and remanded for sealing in accordance with the panel’s opinion. Judge Watford joined the court’s opinion in full, with the exception of section II.A.2.
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