Access to sealed sentencing record

The Financial Times sought access to a sealed sentencing record in a high-profile criminal case about international bribery. In United States v. Ahsani, No. 23-20097, the Fifth Circuit held: “[W]e acknowledge numerous procedural irregularities in the district court, we ultimately affirm its denial of the intervenors’ motion to unseal.”

Two issues in particular were presented.

1. Notice and an opportunity to be heard before sealing. The Fifth Circuit found material errors by the district court in how it handled sealing of the sentencing proceeding. Unfortunately for the Times, those errors did not require unsealing of the hearing as a remedy, and other aspects of the record justified its continued sealing.
2. Legal error. After reviewing the requirements of the common-law and First Amendment rights of public access to court records, the Court held: “[T]he order denying intervenors’ motion to unseal included sparse detail when read in isolation, but it did contain specific, substantive findings sufficient to permit our review, given the facts.  Although its articulation of the governing legal principles could have been more detailed, the court applied the proper legal standards. … The interests it identified are compelling and implicated by the sealed information. Those interests may abate in the future, but for now, they remain salient enough to justify the sealing of the documents at issue, including the transcript of the sealed sentencing proceeding. Finally, the court properly considered the alternative of redaction and permissibly found that it was inappropriate.”