Courthouse News Service v. Brown
RCFP and a coalition of media organizations filed an amicus brief in the Seventh Circuit in support of Courthouse News Service’s efforts to require the Cook County (Illinois) Circuit Court to fulfill its First Amendment obligations related to access to newly filed civil complaints. The district court granted CNS a preliminary injunction ordering the circuit court clerk to provide contemporaneous access to the documents, and the clerk appealed the injunction. RCFP’s brief argues that the First Amendment right of access requires the clerk to provide contemporaneous access to newly filed civil complaints before processing. In addition, the brief argues that timely access to civil complaints benefits the public and that CNS’s profit motive and readership are irrelevant to the determination of the First Amendment right of access.