The Judges of the United States District Court, Northern District of California, have approved proposed substantive modifications to Civil Local Rule 5-1(c)(5)(B)(i) and General Order 61. Pursuant to Civil L.R. 83-2(b), public comments on the proposed modification may be submitted to media@cand.uscourts.gov until October 28, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. PDT.
Proposed changes to Civil LR 5-1, and accompanying changes to General Order 61
These changes originated from a request by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press that the Court change its rule governing electronic access to records in immigration cases. In general, members of the public who have registered to use the Court’s Electronic Case Filing (ECF) system have access to view case dockets and documents electronically filed on case dockets. The Court’s existing rules, however, restrict public access to electronic records in actions or proceedings relating to an order of removal, to relief from removal, or to immigration benefits or detention. Though members of the public may access the docket and any court orders filed in such proceedings electronically, they are restricted from accessing and retrieving all other documents electronically filed in the docket for such a proceeding. If a member of the public wishes to review the filed records that have not been otherwise sealed by a separate court order, they must do so in-person at the Clerk’s office. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2(c); Civil Local Rule 5-1(c)(5)(B)(i).
In considering the Committee’s request, the Court concluded that its existing rules not only impede the public’s ability to access information about immigration cases but also fail to provide sufficient protection for the important privacy and security interests often presented by those cases. Accordingly, the proposed revisions to Civil Local Rule 5-1(c)(5)(B)(i) and General Order 61 both eliminate the existing restrictions on public access to filed electronic records in immigration actions or proceedings and provide additional measures to protect the litigants therein. Under the proposed revisions, filings in immigration cases would no longer be restricted from public view unless a litigant were to file a motion to seal pursuant to Civil Local Rule 79-5 and a judge were to grant such motion in full or in part. In order to protect the privacy and security interests of the plaintiff or petitioner in such an action notwithstanding the public’s access to these records, General Order 61 would permit the plaintiff or petitioner to use their initials and the initials of any family member or close associate in the electronic records to which the public would have access, and the Court would strongly consider using such initials in any orders it issues. General Order 61 would also clarify that the parties in immigration actions or proceedings remain entitled to seek the sealing of other information pursuant to Civil Local Rule 79-5, and would establish a presumption that the record of a plaintiff or petitioner’s immigration proceedings can be filed under seal. Under this proposal, members of the public would not be able to access private information by coming to the courthouse, as they often can do under the current rule.
The Court solicits further proposals for a simplified process for litigants to apply to seal certain portions of the record in such immigration-related actions or proceedings that commonly contain sensitive material and where the record at issue may be so lengthy that a redaction process will be laborious and/or prone to errors.