Courthouse News Serv. v. Planet

Opinion

 [*585]  WARDLAW, Circuit Judge:

"The peculiar value of news is in the spreading of it while it is fresh." Int'l News Serv. v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215, 235, 39 S. Ct. 68, 63 L. Ed. 211 (1918), abrogated on other grounds by Erie R.R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S. Ct. 817, 82 L. Ed. 1188 (1938). This case pits the urgency of reporting on, and the public interest in obtaining, contemporaneous news about filings in our courts against administrative interests in the fair and orderly processing of those filings. During Courthouse News Service's decade-long battle to obtain immediate access to newly filed complaints from Ventura County Superior Court, the drive for "fresh" news has only become more intense. In this digital age, newsfeeds and media platforms update the news by the minute [**6]  or even by the second, and even traditional media deliver an endless stream of "breaking" news. Yet courts undeniably have an important administrative function that requires orderly processing of new filings, and this results in incidental delays to access by the press and public. We are asked to resolve these competing interests.

Applying Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court (Press-Enterprise II), 478 U.S. 1, 106 S. Ct. 2735, 92 L. Ed. 2d 1 (1986), we conclude that ] the press has a qualified right of timely access to newly filed civil nonconfidential complaints that attaches when the complaint is filed. However, this right does not entitle the press to immediate access to those complaints. Some reasonable restrictions resembling time, place, and manner regulations that result in incidental delays in access are constitutionally permitted where they are content-neutral, narrowly tailored and necessary to preserve the court's important interest in the fair and orderly administration of justice.

Courthouse News Service (CNS) "is a national news organization that publishes daily reports for its subscribers about civil litigation, including the filing of new lawsuits." Courthouse News Serv. v. Planet (Planet I), 750 F.3d 776, 779 (9th Cir. 2014). CNS has more than 2,700 subscribers nationwide, including lawyers, law firms, news organizations, other media outlets, and entertainment [**7]  and watchdog groups. In addition to sending proprietary litigation reports to law firms, CNS counts twenty-nine media entities among its subscribers, including the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe. Id. at 780. CNS describes itself as a "pool reporter" for national media, which disseminate CNS's litigation news to the broader public.

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