McNair

INTRODUCTION

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (the NCAA) unsuccessfully moved the trial court to seal 400 pages of the record in a lawsuit brought against it by plaintiff, Todd McNair, a former assistant football coach at the University of Southern California (USC). The NCAA specially moved to strike plaintiff’s complaint on the ground the action was a strategic lawsuit against public participation (Code Civ. Proc., § 425.16), and moved the trial court to seal certain records. Although the trial court denied the NCAA’s motion to seal, it conditionally sealed the documents at issue pending appellate review. In connection with its appeal from the denial of its special motion to strike, the NCAA moved this court to seal the same documents lodged as part of the appellate record. We do not decide the substantive merits of the appeal; we address only the interim motion to seal.

Recognizing the public’s First Amendment right of access to documents used at trial or as a basis of adjudication and a presumption of openness of substantive court proceedings in ordinary cases, our Supreme Court in NBC Subsidiary (KNBC-TV), Inc. v. Superior Court (1999) 20 Cal.4th 1178 […