International Code Council, Inc. v. Upcodes, Inc.

Background

International Code Council, Inc. (ICC) filed a letter motion seeking to seal an excerpt of its response to the defendants’ request for a discovery conference. ICC said the excerpt referred to materials that the defendants had designated confidential under the parties’ stipulated protective order.

Legal standard

The court stated that the common law and the First Amendment create a presumption that judicial documents are available to the public. A judicial document is a filed item relevant to the court’s work and useful in the judicial process. To overcome that presumption, the court must make specific findings that sealing is necessary to protect an important interest and is narrowly tailored to protect that interest. The presumption is generally weaker for filings connected to discovery disputes than for materials introduced at trial or filed with motions seeking to dispose of claims.

The court noted that commercially sensitive information and financial information may sometimes justify sealing. But a general reference to a protective order is not enough. The existence of a confidentiality order does not by itself show that the material should remain secret once it is filed with the court.

Ruling

Judge Valerie Figueredo held that ICC had not identified sufficient reasons against disclosure. The court found that ICC relied on the protective order in only a cursory way and had not addressed the strength of the public-access presumption or explained why sealing was justified under the governing standard.

The court denied without prejudice ICC’s letter motion to seal. The parties were permitted to submit a renewed letter motion explaining specifically why sealing was appropriate, with the stated deadline of March 10, 2023. The clerk was directed to keep the disputed filing, ECF No. 150, under seal while the renewed motion was submitted, and to terminate the original sealing motion at ECF No. 149.