In nixing public release of Proposition 8 trial recordings yesterday, a three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that antigay supporters of the 2008 ballot measure had relied on now-retired Judge Vaughn Walker’s “specific assurances … that the recording would not be broadcast to the public, at least in the foreseeable future.”
Ninth Circuit judge Stephen Reinhardt, who wrote the opinion released Thursday, specified “forseeable future” because current court rules mandate that documents filed under seal become public 10 years after a decision in a case — unless a legal party shows “good cause” as to why they should remain out of the public’s hands.
If that rule holds, then the recordings could be released August 4, 2020 — a decade after Walker’s landmark decision — regardless of whether attorneys challenging Prop. 8 decide to appeal this week’s Ninth Circuit ruling (the legal team led by Ted Olson and David Boies has not indicated whether they will do so).
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