DOJ Can't Shield Names of All Immigration Judges Who Face Complaints, DC Circuit Rules

By Zoe Tillman, The National Law Journal, July 29, 2016

The U.S. Department of Justice cannot indiscriminately keep secret the names of immigration judges who are the subject of misconduct complaints, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled on Friday.

The Justice Department redacted the names of immigration judges in 16,000 pages of documents produced in response to a public records request. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the

D.C. Circuit said DOJ must go back and weigh judges' privacy interests against the public's right to the information.

"Given the variety in types of complaints and circumstances of individual immigration judges, not every judge has the same privacy interests at stake and not every complaint would equally enlighten the public about 'what their government is up to,'" Judge Sri Srinivasan wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel.

Read more here.

Copy of opinion here.