Schulte v. Attorney General of the United States
- Jesse Furman
- 1:19-cv-03346
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Schulte v. Attorney General, Judge Furman unsealed most docket documents, kept ECF No. 2-1 restricted during review, and directed notice to Schulte.
The public and Inner City Press gained access to most documents in the case; Schulte’s submission at ECF No. 2-1 remained restricted during court review.
What happened
In Schulte v. Attorney General of the United States, Inner City Press asked the court to make documents in the civil case available to the public. The case had been sealed before it was reassigned to Judge Jesse M. Furman.
The court concluded that most of the docket did not need to remain sealed. It ordered the Clerk to remove viewing restrictions from those documents, while keeping the plaintiff’s submission at ECF No. 2-1 available only to the court and case participants while it was reviewed.
Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered the Clerk to mail a copy of the order to Joshua Adam Schulte at the Metropolitan Detention Center. The order did not decide the underlying issues in Schulte’s case.
The detailed version
- Schulte v. Attorney General of the United States · No. 1:19-cv-03346
- Jesse Furman
- July 8, 2022
Background
The case had been sealed before it was reassigned to Judge Jesse M. Furman. On July 5, 2022, Matthew Russell Lee, representing Inner City Press, submitted a request to unseal documents. The request stated that Inner City Press could not access many filings in the civil case, including filings identified by docket numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, and 17.
Ruling
The court concluded that there was no reason for most of the docket to remain under seal. It ordered the Clerk of Court to remove all viewing restrictions from the documents in the case except the plaintiff’s submission at ECF No. 2-1. That submission was to remain available only for court and participant viewing while the court reviewed whether it needed to stay sealed.
Effect of the Order
The order made most of the case docket publicly viewable and left open the possibility that ECF No. 2-1 would later be unsealed. The Clerk was also directed to mail a copy of the order to Joshua Adam Schulte at the Metropolitan Detention Center. This order addressed access to sealed filings; it did not decide the underlying claims or motions described in the filings.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.