By JENNY WILSON
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Describing the government’s case against Bunkerville cattle rancher Cliven Bundy as one of “extreme public importance,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal and other media outlets Friday asked a federal appeals court to overturn a sweeping ruling that blocks public access to nearly all of the evidence gathered in the lengthy investigation.
Lawyers for the Review-Journal, the Associated Press and Battle Born Media filed the request with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco after a U.S. District Court ruling last month upheld a broad seal of documents that are ordinarily part of the public record.
“The concerns of the media are that they’re effectively locked out of a lot of the case,” Review-Journal attorney Maggie McLetchie said. “The protective order in the case is so broad that it cloaks almost everything the government does or hands over in discovery with secrecy.”
Bundy, four of his sons and 14 supporters were indicted in March in connection with an armed standoff that occurred after the Bureau of Land Management tried to round up hundreds of the rancher’s cattle following a decades-long dispute over grazing fees.
Within months of bringing charges, federal prosecutors, citing witness safety concerns, asked the court for a protective order that would automatically seal virtually all evidence produced during the pretrial portion of the case.
“The public’s right to inspect certain criminal court records is protected by the First Amendment,” media lawyers wrote in the new filing.
They acknowledged that there were, in some cases, legitimate reasons to block access to sensitive documents. But, they argued, “a court cannot rely on stale evidence and speculation about possible threats or intimidation to limit access to virtually all discovery in a criminal case.”
The media’s fight over access is not the first time First Amendment issues have come up in the case, and it is unlikely to be the last. Some of the defendants, who likewise oppose the far-reaching seal, have signaled that their defense strategy may include a freedom of assembly component.
Contact Jenny Wilson at [email protected] or 702-384-8710. Follow @jennydwilson on Twitter.
