The Secrecy in Courts Dilemma

Sarah Isgur and David French are joined by Vince Chhabria, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and Stanford professor Nora Engstrom to discuss the incredibly high number of motions granted to seal documents and the line between secrecy and protecting the public interest. They also discuss three new cases that SCOTUS added to its oral argument docket and Big Law red flags. The Agenda: –Shout out to our Antarctica fans –Welcome to Big Law, son Order Sarah’s book here. Advisory Opinions is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including access to all of our articles, members-only newsletters, and bonus podcast episodes—click here. If you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member by clicking here. Sarah Isgur is a senior editor at The Dispatch and is based in northern Virginia. Prior to joining the company in 2019, she had worked in every branch of the federal government and on three presidential campaigns. She’s also an ABC News contributor and the New York Times bestselling author of Last Branch Standing, a deep dive into the inner workings of the Supreme Court. When Sarah is not hosting podcasts or writing newsletters, she’s probably sending uplifting stories about spiders to Jonah, who only pretends to love all animals. David French is a columnist for the New York Times. He’s a former senior editor of The Dispatch. He’s the author most recently of Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. The podcast transcription below was generated using artificial intelligence and may include occasional errors or misspellings. Music 0:00 [keys jingling] Ready? Music 0:02 I was born ready. [upbeat music] Sarah Isgur 0:19 Welcome to "Advisory Opinions." I'm Sarah Isgur. That's David French. And have we got maybe the most thrilling, sexiest advisory opinions to date on sealing orders. And we've got guests to talk about it. Northern District of California Judge Vince Chhabria and Stanford Law Professor Nora Engstrom are here to discuss all things, the difference between protective orders and sealing orders, and are we over-sealing the heck out of civil litigation, and how would we do it in criminal litigation, and why is Judge Chhabria sanctioning everyone that comes into his courtroom from big law? I love it. David, we also have some cert grants from the Supreme Court to walk through before they get to oral argument later in the year, and a question from a first-year associate in an Am Law 100 law firm. He's grumpy. Is it his firm's fault? Sarah Isgur 1:19 All right, David, before we get to our guests, um, some housekeeping, and, and maybe the most important housekeeping Sarah Isgur 1:27 that, uh, we've ever had on this podcast. I have an announcement to make. Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like