Henderson v. National Railroad Passenger Corp., No. 1:2013cv06792 - Document 24 (S.D.N.Y. 2014)

Court Description: OPINION & ORDER: For the foregoing reasons, the Court enters a protective order to cover the following five categories of information: The investigation report and draft investigation report concerning the incident, on May 18, 2012, in which Hender son was injured; the notes of the investigators who conducted that investigation; three audio CDs containing recordings of witness interviews from that investigation; training and safety histories of 10 Amtrak employees; and an Amtrak financial in voice for East River Tunnel work. Henderson may not disclose any of these materials to the public, and may only use the materials in support of this litigation. However, Amtraks application for a protective order to cover audio recordings of calls and radio communications between Amtrak personnel and the Penn Station Central Control and the Amtrak Trouble Desk on May 18, 2012 is denied. This decision is, of course, without prejudice to Hendersons right to move to vacate or modify this pro tective order at a later date, including when and if the materials covered by it are implicated either by pretrial motions or trial proceedings. The Court is mindful that the facts necessary to show good cause for a protective order applicable to d iscovery documents that are not yet implicated in judicial proceedings will not necessarily meet the higher threshold imposed by the First Amendment with respect to judicial documents. Newsday LLC, 730 F.3d at 166(citing In re Midland Natl Life Ins. Co., 686 F.3d 1115, 1120 (9th Cir. 2012); Union Oil Co. of Cal. v. Leavell, 220 F.3d 562, 568 (7th Cir. 2000); Rushford v. New Yorker Magazine, Inc., 846 F.2d 249, 25253 (4th Cir. 1988)). (Signed by Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on 7/14/2014) (cd)