UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

August Term, 2022

(Argued: April 10, 2023 Decided: March 11, 2025)

Docket No. 21-3098 _____________________________________

COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE; VERMONT PRESS ASSOCIATION, INC.; NEW ENGLAND FIRST AMENDMENT COALITION; GRAY MEDIA GROUP, INC., DBA WCAX-TV; GANNETT VERMONT PUBLISHING, INC., DBA Burlington Free Press; SAMPLE NEWS GROUP, LLC, DBA Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, DBA Rutland Herald; VERMONT JOURNALISM TRUST, LTD.; VTDIGGER, a project of Vermont Journalism Trust, Ltd.; DA CAPO PUBLISHING, INC., DBA Seven Days; VERMONT COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER GROUP, LLC, DBA Stowe Reporter, News & Citizen, South Burlington Other Paper, Shelburne News, and The Citizen,

Plaintiff-Appellees,

v. TERI CORSONES, in her official capacity as the State Court Administrator of the Supreme Court of the State of Vermont; AMANDA STITES, in her official capacity as Clerk of Court for Addison, Bennington, and Rutland Counties; MARGARET VILLENEUVE, in her official capacity as Clerk of Court for Caledonia, Essex, Orleans, and Washington Counties; CHRISTINE BROCK, in her official capacity as Clerk of Court for Chittenden County; GAYE PAQUETTE, in her official capacity as Clerk of Court for Franklin, Grand Isle, and Lamoille Counties; ANNE DAMONE, in her official capacity as Clerk of Court for Orange, Windham, and Windsor Counties,

Defendant-Appellants. ∗

∗ The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to amend the official case caption as set forth above. _____________________________________ Before: LEVAL, CHIN, and SULLIVAN, Circuit Judges.

Defendants, administrators and clerks of the Vermont Superior Court, appeal from the judgment and permanent injunction of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont (Christina Reiss, J.) in favor of Plaintiffs, news and related media organizations. Beginning in 2020, when Vermont courts transitioned to electronic filing, the Superior Court adopted a policy of denying public access to newly filed civil complaints until a court clerk had reviewed them to ensure that they were signed, they did not contain unredacted confidential information, that they complied with technical requirements under the court’s rules, and that they did not show unredacted filers’ notes. Plaintiffs sued, challenging this practice as a violation of their First Amendment right of access to court documents. After a bench trial, the district court issued judgment in Plaintiffs’ favor, holding that Vermont’s pre-access review process violated Plaintiffs’ First Amendment right of access to judicial documents, and issued a permanent injunction barring Defendants from withholding complaints until completion of a pre- access review. We agree with the Plaintiffs and the district court that Vermont’s practice in the period reviewed by the trial court violated Plaintiffs’ First Amendment right of access, but we agree with the Defendants that the terms of the permanent injunction were not supported by the court’s findings. We accordingly AFFIRM the district court’s judgment to the extent it found that the practice it reviewed violated the First Amendment, but we VACATE the permanent injunction to the extent that it barred the Defendants from engaging in any review for unredacted confidential information before permitting access to the complaints. We REMAND for further proceedings.

JUDGE SULLIVAN concurs in part and dissents in part in a separate opinion.

JONATHAN E. GINSBERG (William J. Hibsher, Glenn B. Coleman, on the brief),