Online News Firm Sues for Judges’ Disclosures

APB Online Inc., an Internet news service that covers criminal justice issues, has sued a judicial committee headed by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, seeking release of federal judges’ financial disclosure reports that the panel has withheld. In a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, privately held APB Online says its 1st Amendment rights were violated when the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Committee on Financial Disclosure rejected its request for copies of disclosures filed by more than 1,600 federal judges. The forms, which judges are required to complete, list their stock holdings and other assets. They can identify potential conflicts of interest by judges acting in cases in which they have financial interests. APB planned to provide public access to the disclosures on its Web site, as other organizations have done with similar filings by members of Congress and executive branch officials.

“This is a fight to gain access to public records for all Internet users,” said APB Online’s Chief Operating Officer Mark Sauter, who founded the company in 1998 with investment bankers Marshall V. Davidson and Matthew L. Cohen. “The Internet is not just a legitimate but a superior means to disseminate these documents to the public.” In denying APB’s request for the documents, the judicial panel said disclosure to a “self-described news organization” might put the judges in danger. It also said online publication of the reports would run afoul of rules limiting their disclosures only to those making written requests. The standard procedure is to release a judge’s filing to an individual who has filed a request form and paid the copying fees. Then the judge in question is notified. A spokesman for the judges’ panel declined to comment.