Flores v. Gonzalez

Background

By an order dated June 8, 2023, the court directed the Clerk of Court to transfer this action to the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. That court acknowledged receipt on June 15, 2023. On May 6, 2025, Valerie Flores filed a motion asking the court to seal the entire case and to remove it from legal websites and search engines. She cited job-related reasons and other factors.

Court’s analysis

The court explained that both the common law and the First Amendment protect public access to court documents. It applied the Second Circuit’s three-part test: whether the material is a judicial document, how strong the presumption of public access is, and whether competing interests overcome that presumption.

The court treated the complaint and the transfer order as judicial documents. It found that Flores had not shown that their contents were sufficiently extraordinary to overcome the strong presumption of public access, and she had not alleged facts showing that another factor supported restricting access. The court stated that privacy concerns and protection of professional reputation were not enough because possible negative effects on employment, business, social status, or reputation do not outweigh the public’s access rights. The court also noted that the case had been publicly available since Flores filed the complaint on May 24, 2023, and that the court could not control third-party platforms that had obtained access to the case.

Disposition

Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain denied Flores’s motion to seal, directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the motion, and stated that the case remained closed. The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying court fees for purposes of an appeal.