Felix v. United States of America

Filing 80

ORDER denying without prejudice 73 Motion to Seal Document. Signed by Senior Judge Paul G Rosenblatt on 8/29/12.(MAP)

1

WO

2
3
4
5
6

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

7

FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

8
9
10

Bobbi Lee Felix,
Plaintiff,

11
12
13

vs.
United States of America,
Defendant.

14

)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)

No. CV-11-01203-PHX-PGR

ORDER

15
16

Having reviewed Defendant’s Motion to File Under Seal (Doc. 73), the

17

Court finds that it should be denied without prejudice notwithstanding that the

18

plaintiff’s response (Doc. 78) to the motion states that she has no objection to the

19

motion.

20

The defendant seeks to file under seal two exhibits to the Statement of

21

Facts it filed in support of its Motion for Summary Judgment. The Ninth Circuit

22

has made it clear that the party seeking to seal an attachment to a summary

23

judgment motion bears the burden of overcoming the strong presumption in favor

24

of public access to judicial records by articulating “compelling reasons supported

25

by specific factual findings ... that outweigh the general history of access and the

26

public policies favoring disclosure.” Kamakana v. City and County of Honolulu,

1

447 F.3d 1172, 1178-79 (9th Cir.2006). The cursory, one-sentence reason

2

advanced by the defendant for the requested sealing, which is that “[s]aid exhibits

3

were produced by the Customs and Border Patrol agency and are considered to

4

contain non-public, confidential information[,]” patently fails to satisfy the

5

“compelling reasons” standard. Therefore,

6
7
8

IT IS ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion to File Under Seal (Doc. 73) is
denied without prejudice.
DATED this 29th day of August, 2012.

9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26

-2-