Miami federal court has 'secret docket' to keep some cases hidden from pub

[Judi Lynn]

Miami federal court has 'secret docket' to keep some cases hidden from public

By Ann W. O'Neill
Staff Writer
Posted January 8 2004

A secret docketing system hiding some sensitive Miami federal court cases from public view has been exposed and is being challenged in two higher courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We don't have secret justice in this country," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The Washington-based journalists watchdog group is asking the appellate courts to open up two Miami federal cases it says were litigated in secret.

The group has filed briefs in the Supreme Court and in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Representing two dozen media and legal organizations, it is mounting the stiffest challenge yet to a practice legal experts say violates free speech rights and ignores established court decisions favoring open records and courtrooms.

The legal challenges are emerging as the higher courts are taking a long look at the government secrecy surrounding the detention of more than 1,000 Muslim and Middle Eastern men in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
(snip/...)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-csecret08jan08,0,2167647.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[jpgray]

1. What is it with Bushes and shitting on the sixth amendment? (nt)

[kayell]

2. Hey, why skip the 6th

the whole Bill of Rights looks like toilet paper to the BFEE.

[missile_bender]

3. How come no secret trials for the terrorists captured in Texas?!!

There may have not been a lot of press about them, but no secret trials!

Some new info about that in the Los Angeles Times. "...Federal officials believe they may have uncovered one of the most audacious domestic terrorism plots since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. Starting with a single piece of mail, investigators discovered an enormous cache of weapons in Noonday, in East Texas, including the makings of a sophisticated sodium cyanide bomb capable of killing thousands of people."

Unembedded.com