Klein

Eight years ago, our Supreme Court held that the right of public access to court proceedings under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution applied to civil as well as criminal proceedings. (See NBC Subsidiary (KNBC-TV), Inc. v. Superior Court (1999) 20 Cal.4th 1178 [ 86 Cal.Rptr.2d 778 , 980 P.2d 337 ] (NBC Subsidiary).) Chief Justice George, writing for a unanimous court, addressed the propriety of excluding the public and press from certain trial proceedings in a civil suit involving prominent entertainment figures and concluded “that, in general, the First Amendment provides a right of access to ordinary civil trials and proceedings . . . .” (Id. at p. 1212.) The court also made the point in a footnote that courts have generally held that there is “a First Amendment right of access to civil litigation documents filed in court as a basis for adjudication. ...[][]... [but] that the First Amendment does not compel public access to discovery materials that are neither used at trial nor submitted as a basis for adjudication.” (Id. at pp. 1208-1209, fn. 25.)

Based upon this footnote in NBC Subsidiary, the Judicial Council in 2001 adopted two rules concerning…