Highest Court to Decide on Clergy Sex Abuse Papers, Joe Piraneo, NBC Connecticut, September 3, 2009

Highest Court to Decide on Clergy Sex Abuse Papers

By Joe Piraneo
NBC Connecticut
September 3, 2009

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local-beat/Clergy-Sex-Abuse-Issue-Heads-to-Supreme-Court-56906662.html

A request by the Diocese of Bridgeport to keep clergy sex abuse files sealed is headed to the highest court after all.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dealt the church a major blow last month, but Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed the request to the full court Wednesday, according to the U.S. Supreme Court's Web site.

The church wants to hang on tight to 12,000 pages of documents from more than 20 lawsuits against priests. Ginsberg declined to keep those sealed while the nation's high court decides whether it will review the case.

On Aug. 28, the diocese refiled the application with Scalia, who ruled on it on accepted the request Wednesday.

Now, the documents will remain sealed until all nine justices make a ruling, the Hartford Courant reports. The full court is expected to decide the matter by Sept. 29, according to the U.S. Supreme Court Web site.

Critics say the move is an attempt to protect former Bishop Edward M. Egan, who moved many pedophile priests around the diocese even after learning about sex abuse allegations, according to the Courant. .

Nearly two-dozen lawsuits against seven priests in the diocese were settled for an undisclosed amount of money in 2001.

Four newspapers, including the Courant, went to court in 2002 seeking to have the files reopened and to keep them from being destroyed. The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled twice that the files are public.