Kamakana

We consider whether court records, originally filed under seal as attachments to motions in a civil action alleging police corruption, must be released to a newspaper under the common law right of access. This appeal stems from a suit by Kenneth Kamakana, a Honolulu police detective, claiming retaliation by the City and County of Honolulu for his whistleblower activities. Although that suit settled and its merits are not at issue here, during the litigation scores of documents were filed under seal in accord with a stipulated protective order. On the motion of intervenor Gannett Pacific Corporation/The Honolulu Advertiser (“Honolulu Advertiser”), the magistrate judge undertook a detailed and exhaustive review and unsealed virtually all of the pleadings and documents. The City and County of Honolulu, as well as Lee Donohue and Milton Olmos in their official capacities (collectively the “City”), with the United States as intervenor, challenge that order. We affirm.

Background

I. Kamakana’s Case

Kamakana was a detective in the Honolulu Police Department (HPD). From 1991 to 2000, he was in the elite Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU), which investigates organized crime. In September…