Associated Press sues the U.S. federal judiciary, demanding electronic access to immigration detainee case files

Top story: The Associated Press sued the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on Tuesday, challenging the constitutionality of a rule that, it says, sharply limits journalists’ ability to report on the lawsuits of thousands of people detained as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, the AP says that thousands of people arrested during the administration’s deportation drive have sued, claiming they were held in unlawful detention. Like other media outlets, the AP has sought to report on these so-called habeas cases “because of the great public interest in federal immigration enforcement policies and the treatment of detainees in their care.”

“But time and again, AP journalists have encountered an obstacle that fundamentally undermines the AP’s ability to report in a timely manner on these immigration habeas cases, and in some respects prevents coverage of these cases altogether,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit challenges a provision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that restricts remote electronic access to documents filed in immigration-related cases, preventing their download from the online court records system known as PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records).

Although these records are public, they can usually be accessed only by physically going to the courthouse where they were filed and requesting access through the clerk’s office, where they can often be viewed on a public terminal.

The AP argues that, under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, these records are subject to a qualified right of access and should be available through PACER like other court documents.

It also says the rule constitutes an unconstitutional content-based restriction, because it limits access to documents based solely on the subject matter of the case — in this instance, immigration.

“The result — even if unintentional — is that immigrants’ claims of unlawful detention by the federal government are far less visible to the public than other types of federal lawsuits,” the suit says.

The lawsuit names as defendant the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the administrative arm of the judiciary. A spokesperson for the office declined to comment.

The suit was filed by attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which in May had separately asked the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure to review the rule to remove restrictions on electronic access to immigration records.

The proposed rule change has been referred to a Judicial Conference advisory committee, which meets again on October 21. However, any change would likely take years to go through the judiciary’s normal regulatory process.

The case is “The Associated Press v. the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts,” U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1:26-cv-03219.

Source: Reuters