Sunday, August 12, 2007

ABA considers plan restricting access to arrest, court records


baltimoresun.com

Media groups call proposal a violation of First Amendment
Associated Press
August 9, 2007

WASHINGTON--The public could lose access to certain arrest and court records, even those of people convicted of serious crimes, under a proposal being considered by the nation's largest organization of lawyers.

An American Bar Association committee that drafted the proposal says ready access to court records has led to employment and housing discrimination against people who were arrested but never convicted of crimes or who have completed sentences and returned to society.

News media organizations say limiting public access to records, which would require changes to state and federal law, would violate the First Amendment and make it harder to expose misconduct by police and prosecutors.

The American Bar Association is expected to consider the measure next week at its annual meeting in San Francisco.

The ABA committee pushing for the change says landlords and employers who have easy access to court files through records-checking services sometimes unfairly refuse to hire or rent to people who have not been arrested or convicted.

Stephen A. Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor who is co-chairman of the ABA's Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions, said the panel spent two years looking at ways "to improve the chances of people who have criminal records getting jobs and balancing re-entry versus safety."

What the committee found, Saltzburg said, is that when employers or landlords conduct background checks on applicants and "a record shows up, they just don't consider the person, even if there are anti-discrimination laws."

More than 70 million people have criminal records, the ABA said, citing Justice Department statistics.

The proposal urges governments to seal files immediately in cases of people who were arrested but never convicted of crimes, or whose convictions were later set aside. O.J. Simpson, the four Los Angeles police officers accused of assaulting motorist Rodney King and actor Robert Blake, acquitted of murdering his wife, are among those whose state court records would be sealed in California if the state adopted a law closing records on criminal acquittals.

The records of those convicted of misdemeanors and felonies should be closed after an undefined period of law-abiding conduct, the measure says. Violent crimes, large-scale drug trafficking and similarly grave offenses would not be included.

"What most people want, except the press, is a genuine opportunity for people to have a second chance," Saltzburg said.

News media organizations as well as ABA committees on the First Amendment and the media are lobbying against the proposal. The Associated Press Managing Editors is among the media groups opposing the proposal.

"They're asking to dramatically rewrite the law in terms of access to public records," said Kelli L. Sager, a Los Angeles lawyer who co-chairs an ABA First Amendment group.


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