A total of 38 news organizations rallied on Friday to support a First Amendment challenge to Virginia’s practice of giving a preferred list of people remote 24-hour access to court records while forcing the press and public to travel around the state to see the same public records.
A ruling earlier this month by a two-judge majority on an appellate panel approved Virginia’s restriction that gives lawyers and government officials remote access any time any place while telling the public and press to hit the road.
“Such speaker-based restrictions impose unconstitutional delays and, in some instances — such as when distance or travel conditions preclude a reporter’s journey to a physical courthouse in a distant part of the Commonwealth — may, as a practical matter, constructively deny access to judicial records altogether,” said the amicus brief by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
