Nieves v. Commissioner of Social Security
- Ona Wang
- 1:18-cv-02629
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Nieves v. Saul, Judge Wang granted Carmen Nieves’s request to redact sensitive medical information from a conference transcript.
Carmen Nieves and public access to the July 11, 2019 conference transcript, specifically references to Nieves’s medical information.
What happened
In Carmen Nieves v. Andrew M. Saul, Commissioner of Social Security, Carmen Nieves asked the court to redact references to her medical records and medical conditions from a July 11, 2019 conference transcript.
Nieves argued that her sensitive health information should remain private and that the transcript should not receive public-access protections for those details. She cited privacy interests and federal health-information regulations.
Judge Ona T. Wang granted the application. The provided text does not identify the specific redactions made in the final transcript.
The detailed version
- Nieves v. Commissioner of Social Security · No. 1:18-cv-02629
- Ona Wang
- Feb. 28, 2020
Background
Carmen Nieves, represented by Steven F. Rivera of White & Case LLP, submitted a letter asking the court to redact references to her medical records and medical conditions from a July 11, 2019 conference transcript. She submitted a proposed redacted transcript with the request.
Arguments
Nieves accepted that the transcript was a “judicial document” under the cited Second Circuit standard. She argued, however, that the First Amendment and common-law presumptions of public access should not apply to her sensitive medical information. She relied on a privacy interest in keeping medical and mental-health records confidential and cited the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and related federal regulations concerning protected health information.
The letter also cited decisions from federal courts in the Second Circuit and elsewhere that, according to Nieves, had sealed or redacted documents containing protected health information.
Ruling
The court’s order states: “Application Granted. SO ORDERED.” Judge Ona T. Wang therefore granted Nieves’s application to redact the medical-information references from the transcript. The provided opinion text does not state the exact redactions appearing in the final transcript.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.