Hawaii Law Mandating Sealing of All “Medical and Health Records” Unconstitutional
From last week’s decision in Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest, Inc. v. Maile, decided by Judge Richard Paez, joined by Judges Milan Smith and Lucy Koh:
Under the First Amendment, “the press and the public have a presumed right of access to court proceedings and documents.” “By offering such protection, the First Amendment serves to ensure that the individual citizen can effectively participate in and contribute to our republican system of self-government.” This right of access does not attach to every judicial proceeding or court record. But where the First Amendment right of access attaches, and “the State attempts to deny [that] right of access,” “it must be shown that the denial is necessitated by a compelling governmental interest, and is narrowly tailored to serve that interest.”
The Hawai’i Court Records Rules, which apply to all criminal and civil proceedings in Hawai’i state courts, require that all “medical and health records” be filed under seal without further order of a judge. We are asked to determine whether a state may mandate the categorical sealing of all “medical and health records” filed in any state court proceeding in order to protect the individual privacy rights of the subjects of those records, without any case-by-case consideration of the privacy interest implicated by the records or whether less restrictive alternatives exist to sufficiently protect that interest. We conclude that it may not….
Defendants argue that, even if the First Amendment grants a presumptive right of access to any “medical and health records,” requiring that all such records be filed under seal is necessary to protect the individual right to privacy guaranteed by Hawaii’s constitution and laws, such that the challenged provision does not run afoul of the First Amendment.
We agree that protecting an individual’s constitutional and statutory right to privacy is a compelling interest that may justify sealing a particular medical or health record. As we have recognized, “[t]he need to protect individual privacy rights may, in some circumstances, rise to t
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