Reporters Committee attorneys are representing The Associated Press in a First Amendment challenge to a federal court rule that makes it difficult for the press and public to monitor the Trump administration’s nationwide immigration enforcement operations, a matter of intense national interest.
In a lawsuit filed last month, the AP asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the enforcement of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2(c), a relatively obscure rule that restricts public access to legal filings made in cases in which immigrants contest their detention and deportation in federal court.
The lawsuit argues that the rule has prevented journalists from reporting on these newsworthy cases in a timely fashion, substantially impeding coverage of how the federal government is carrying out its immigration enforcement policies and treating detainees in its custody.
