Kott

MEMORANDUM **

As part of an investigation of appellant, Irving Kott, search warrants were approved and executed. Later, in 2003, a 48-count indictment was filed against Kott. The search warrant materials and indictment were filed under seal. They remained under seal after Kott pled guilty in June 2004 to two counts of securities violations in a separate information in exchange for dismissal of the indictment. In July 2004, intervenor Dow Jones (the publisher of the Wall Street Journal) moved to have an August 18, 1997 search warrant and its application (including the supporting affidavit), as well as the indictment, unsealed.

The district court granted Dow Jones’s motion to unseal these materials. The district court held that a First Amendment right of access applied to both the search warrant materials and the indictment. The district court did not hold that the right of access was also based in a common law right of access, but it engaged in the balancing test under the facts of this case that essentially replicated the common law balancing test. We now affirm the district court’s order to unseal these documents based on the common law right of access. We do not reach the…