Tenth Circuit rejects bid by New Mexico courts to withhold access

In a consequential opinion on the eve of Thanksgiving, the Tenth Circuit ruled that the public right of access to new court complaints attaches at the time they are submitted. Wednesday’s 55-page opinion falls into a legal battlefield that stretches to every corner of the nation.

In addition to finding the right of access attaches upon submission, the opinion’s author, U.S. Circuit Judge Mary Beck Briscoe, rejected another defense raised by New Mexico’s court administrators who said the federal court should abstain, which roughly translates as the state court administration saying to federal courts, stay out our business.

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