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Local Journalism Project News

Cornell Clinic and RCFP Win Access to Wrongful Death Suit Settlement Records on Behalf of York Daily Record

Pennsylvania news outlet the York Daily Record successfully obtained the unsealing of records in August demonstrating that York County and prison healthcare contractor PrimeCare Medical, Inc. defendants settled a wrongful death suit brought by the estate of Veronique Henry for $200,000. York County previously disclosed that its portion of the settlement was $5,000 and had refused to release full settlement details. The Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a motion to intervene and unseal the federal court records on behalf of the York Daily Record in July.

Henry’s estate brought the wrongful death suit against York County and PrimeCare defendants after Henry committed suicide in her cell shortly after her 2016 arrest in connection with a double homicide. Her estate alleged in the suit that corrections officers and healthcare workers knew that Henry was particularly vulnerable to suicide but failed to take action.

Because PrimeCare is one of the largest jail medical providers in the state, with a track record of paying “millions to settle lawsuits levied against them in federal courts in recent years,” the York Daily Record reached out to the Reporters Committee and the Cornell Clinic to file suit to obtain access to records of significant public concern.  

“Since York County’s contract with PrimeCare was just recently approved for another three years, it is critical for us to continue to report on allegations of improper medical care at York County Prison. Access to settlement records is essential to hold government and its contractors accountable,” said Randy Parker, Editor of the York Daily Record and Central Pennsylvania Executive Editor of the USA Today Network. 

Clinic student Ashley Stamegna, who took the lead in drafting the motion to intervene and unseal the settlement records with supervision from attorneys at the Clinic and the Reporters Committee, said, “We are thrilled by the complete victory for our client. The vast majority of civil cases are now resolved via settlement rather than at a trial open to the public. To allow for public scrutiny of the judicial process, settlement information should as a matter of course be equally available to the public.”

Paula Knudsen Burke of the Reporters Committee and Heather Murray, Managing Attorney of the Clinic’s Local Journalism Project, worked with Stamegna on the suit.

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Clinic Client Publishes Op-Ed on Need for Transparency in Uvalde Shooting Investigation

Freelancer Michelle Garcia published a powerful op-ed in The Daily Beast on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, regarding the need for transparency in the investigation into the Uvalde school shooting. The op-ed highlights the public records access work that the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic and the SMU Dedman School of Law First Amendment Clinic have been doing on her behalf to access arrest and immigration referral records related to the Texas Governor’s Operation Lone Star border initiative.

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Local Journalism Project News

Clinic Files Lawsuit to Obtain Buffalo Bills Stadium Study

On behalf of Buffalo-based nonprofit investigative journalism center Investigative Post, the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic filed an Article 78 petition against Erie County in March 2022 seeking the disclosure of documents regarding the current home of the Buffalo Bills, Highmark Stadium. Investigative Post published an article about the lawsuit here, and an update here.

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Clinic Students Go Behind the Scenes with Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal

On Thursday, March 24, 2022, Clinic students and faculty had the privilege of meeting with an all-star team of reporters, lawyers, and standards editors from the Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones.  During the virtual meeting – the Clinic’s semi-annual “newsroom visit” – students learned about the Wall Street Journal’s approach to managing legal risk and ensuring its reporting is fair, accurate, and balanced.  The Journal team described how reporters, lawyers, and standards editors collaborate from the conception of a story through its publication (and beyond, when necessary).  As a case study for this process in action, the Journal team discussed their work on the Journal’s 2021 investigation finding that dozens of federal judges across the country had undisclosed financial conflicts.

The Clinic is grateful to the Journal team for taking the time to speak to our students and faculty.  As many students in the Clinic wish to pursue careers in media law, these newsroom visits and other opportunities to interact with lawyers, editors, and reporters are immensely valuable to the students.  Learning how an established outlet like the Wall Street Journal approaches its work also helps inform the students’ own work in the Clinic, where they frequently represent smaller outlets and independent journalists.  The Clinic looks forward to continuing this newsroom visit tradition in the future.

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Cornell First Amendment Clinic and ACLU of Oklahoma File Amicus Brief Supporting Challenge to Oklahoma Anti-Protest Bill

The Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic and ACLU of Oklahoma filed an amicus brief on behalf of Oklahoma City-based social justice organization Collegiate Freedom & Justice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in support of a constitutional challenge to a recently-enacted Oklahoma anti‑protest bill, HB 1674. This bill restricts individuals’ rights to gather, demonstrate, and protest in Oklahoma’s public streets. At stake in this case is whether the Oklahoma State Legislature can bar protests in public streets.

“The freedoms of speech and assembly are integral to a representative democracy, and it is imperative that courts protect these fundamental rights,” said Olivia Foster, a third-year student at Cornell Law School and amicus brief co-author. Connor Flannery, a second-year law student at Cornell and amicus brief co-author added that, “HB 1674 is a thinly-veiled attempt to silence the type of speech at the core of the First Amendment.”

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Jackson Alumni Award

Congratulations to Lindsey Ruff – the first recipient of the Jackson Distinguished Alumni Award from the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic, named for Clinic Founder, Mark Jackson. 

“Lindsey continues to make a real — and lasting — contribution to the work of the Cornell First Amendment Clinic and the First Amendment itself,” praised Jackson. “A true trailblazer.”

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Reporter sues for access to Mariner East pipeline records

Represented by Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, freelance investigative journalist Daniel Schwartz filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania State Police to obtain records related to the Mariner East Pipeline protests.

Schwartz seeks intervention from the Commonwealth Court to enforce a Final Determination from the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records that ordered the Pennsylvania State Police to produce certain law enforcement officers’ communications. 

The lawsuit argues that Schwartz is entitled to access to these records, which relate to a matter of significant public interest: the Mariner East pipeline protests and the interaction of police with such protests.

“I’ve seen again and again in my reporting that access to public records is essential to both inform the public and hold the government accountable,” Schwartz said. “It shouldn’t take a lawsuit to get access.”

The Pennsylvania State Police denied Schwartz access to certain records in April 2021, claiming that they did not exist.  In June 2021, the Office of Open Records ordered the Pennsylvania State Police either to produce the requested records or provide an affidavit describing that it conducted an adequate search for them. Since then, the Pennsylvania State Police has failed to comply with the order.

Clinic student Steven Marzagalli, who took the lead in drafting the Petition filed with supervision from attorneys at the Clinic and the Reporters Committee, said, “I joined Cornell’s First Amendment Clinic for two reasons: the opportunity to learn from talented litigators, and to help the First Amendment bring us closer to the transparent ideals it promises. I am grateful to our client Dan for allowing me the opportunity to help him demand this transparency from the Pennsylvania State Police.”

Paula Knudsen Burke of the Reporters Committee, Associate Clinic Director Jared Carter, and Heather Murray, Managing Attorney of the Clinic’s Local Journalism Project, worked with Marzagalli on the enforcement action.

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Cornell Clinic Files Amicus Brief to Open Domestic Violence Proceedings in Puerto Rico

By Cornell Law School Staff

December 21, 2021

Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on December 3, 2021, arguing on behalf of media organizations that a Puerto Rico Supreme Court ruling undermines the press’s vital role in informing the public about our nation’s courts and the development of domestic violence law in particular.

Four days after the clinic filed its amicus brief, the Puerto Rico Solicitor General issued a statement agreeing that the sealed recordings should be made public. Three days later, the chief justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court announced a new court watch program that will permit volunteers to observe some domestic violence proceedings.[1]

The amicus brief supports a petition filed by the Yale Law School Media Freedom and Information Access clinic on behalf of the Asociación de Periodistas de Puerto Rico (the Puerto Rico Journalists Association). The petition seeks review of a high-profile domestic violence case that resulted in widespread public protests in Puerto Rico. Those protests came on the heels of the discovery of Andrea Cristina Ruiz Costas’ partially burned body and a confession by her ex-boyfriend. Shortly before her murder, Ms. Costas had unsuccessfully sought protection from Puerto Rican courts, who thrice denied her requests. When the Yale clinic sought access to the recordings of the proceedings in the trial court, the Puerto Rico Supreme Court denied access to all domestic violence proceedings and records without any opportunity to brief or argue for the right of access.

Following the solicitor general’s recent statement supporting unsealing and the chief justice’s statement announcing a court watch program, the Yale Clinic requested that the court grant certiorari (vacate the decision below), and remand with instructions to consider whether a court rule at issue, as construed by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, violates the First Amendment right of access.

The amicus brief the Cornell clinic filed argues that the Puerto Rico Supreme Court decision’s blanket closure of civil domestic violence proceedings is out of step with the presumptive openness of the vast majority of these proceedings nationwide and with a long tradition of access to their historical counterpart, divorce proceedings.

“This decision denies the press and the public an opportunity to fulfill their essential role of holding the judiciary accountable for the failure to protect domestic violence victims. Shrouding domestic violence proceedings in secrecy would make it impossible for the public to effectively campaign for what may be much-needed legal reforms,” said Heather Murray, Managing Attorney of the Clinic’s Local Journalism Project.

“Journalists routinely rely on domestic violence records and access to judicial proceedings in their reporting. The Puerto Rico Supreme Court’s decision closing all domestic violence proceedings hampers journalists’ ability to do their jobs,” Clinic Director Mark Jackson said. Clinic students Tim Birchfield and Ashley Stamegna, Clinic Associate Director Jared Carter, Jackson, and Murray worked on the amicus effort.

If the petition is ultimately successful, journalists will win access to Puerto Rico domestic violence proceedings.

[1] The statements referenced above are annexed to the Supplemental Brief filed by the Yale Clinic on Dec. 16, 2021.

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Clinic Student argues in the 4th Department

Ashley Stamegna, a student at the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic, argued an appeal before a panel of New York’s Appellate Division, Fourth Department on Ashley made the compelling, important case that our client, The Batavian, should have been granted access to an attorney disqualification motion in a family court matter and now should be provided a transcript of that proceeding. Ashley has been a forceful advocate for local journalism in her three semesters with our clinic. Congratulations also go to our clinic alumnus, Christopher Johnson, and current student Tim Birchfield, both of whom worked with Ashley on the brief which a Judge on the panel said in open court was “exceedingly well written”. Final congrats to Heather Murray, the Managing Attorney of our clinic’s Local Journalism Project, for supervising this important matter.

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Bruce Brown, Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press visits Cornell

The Clinic is grateful to Bruce Brown, Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for coming up to Ithaca this past week to address our law school and university communities on critical free speech issues of the day. Brown also gave a special presentation to our First Amendment Clinic students in their class the following day.

It is organizations like RCFP, and colleagues like Brown, who make the Clinic’s work so much more impactful and our time doing it so much more rewarding and downright enjoyable.