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	Bridgeport Diocese Asks Nation's Top Court to Keep Documents Sealed By Dave Altimari Hartford Courant August 7, 2009 http://www.courant.com/community/bridgeport/hc-priest-appeal0807.artaug07,0,6524031.story The Bridgeport diocese is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to keep thousands of pages of court documents involving priest abuse cases under seal until that court decides in the fall whether to take up the case. In a 45-page document filed by Mayer Brown LLP of New York, the law firm that is apparently going to handle the appeal, church officials argue that if the documents are not kept under seal the appeal will be moot because the "media will disseminate the documents," thereby depriving the justices of the opportunity to review the legal issues. The motion claims that there is a good chance the high court will take up the diocese's case because of two issues — the state Supreme Court's definition of what constitutes a legal document; and the church's contention that its First Amendment rights would be violated by the unsealing of documents that church officials produced with the understanding that they would be sealed forever. The diocese is trying to keep closed more than 12,600 pages of depositions, exhibits and legal arguments involving 23 lawsuits against seven priests from the Bridgeport diocese. The lawsuits were settled by the church for undisclosed amounts with the agreement that the settlements and the documents would remain sealed forever. Several newspapers, including The Courant, filed a lawsuit to have the documents unsealed. Among the court documents are three depositions by then-Bishop Edward Egan, who was in charge of the Bridgeport diocese when most of the lawsuits against priests under his control were filed and adjudicated. Egan recently retired as the archbishop of New York. The state Supreme Court has twice ruled that the documents should be unsealed. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is the church's last legal step to keep them secret. They are expected to file their petition with the high court by the end of this month. The high court usually doesn't decide which cases it will hear until the fall. The court decides to hear only a handful of the petitions.
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