Wagafe v. Biden

HONORABLE RICHARD A. JONES UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 10 ABDIQAFAR WAGAFE, et al., 11 CASE NO. C17-00094 RAJ Plaintiffs, 12 ORDER GRANTING v. MOTION TO SEAL DONALD TRUMP, et al., 15 Defendants.

17 This matter is before the Court on Plaintiffs’ motion to seal. Dkt. # 329. For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS the motion.

19 “There is a strong presumption of public access to the court’s files.” Western District of Washington Local Civil Rule (“LCR”) 5(g). “Only in rare circumstances should a party file a motion, opposition, or reply under seal.” LCR 5(g)(5). Normally the moving party must include “a specific statement of the applicable legal standard and the reasons for keeping a document under seal, with evidentiary support from declarations where necessary.” LCR 5(g)(3)(B). However, where parties have entered a stipulated protective order governing the exchange in discovery of documents that a party deems confidential, “a party wishing to file a confidential document it obtained from another party in discovery may file a motion to seal but need not satisfy subpart (3)(B) above.

1 Instead, the party who designated the document confidential must satisfy subpart (3)(B) in its response to the motion to seal or in a stipulated motion.” LCR 5(g)(3). A “good cause” showing under Rule 26(c) will suffice to keep sealed records attached to non- dispositive motions. Kamakana v. City & County of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1180 (9th Cir. 2006) (internal citations omitted).

6 Plaintiffs move to keep under seal the declaration of Heath Hyatt (“Hyatt Declaration”) and the accompanying exhibit (“Exhibit A”), submitted in support of Plaintiffs’ motion to compel. See Dkt. # 330; Dkt. # 330, Ex. A. Exhibit A to the Hyatt Declaration includes documents produced to Plaintiffs under an Attorneys-Eyes-Only Order (see Dkt. # 274) and the Hyatt Declaration includes information from those documents. Dkt. # 329 at 1. Defendants argue that these documents contain personal identifying information from the Named Plaintiffs’ A-Files and sensitive but unclassified information about the investigative techniques used by USCIS to vet applicants and security risks. Dkt. # 338 at 2-3. Because the documents are attached to a non- dispositive motion and Defendants have established “good cause” for keeping this limited subset of documents under seal, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ motion to seal. Dkt. # 329.

18 Dated this 12th day of May, 2020.

19 A The Honorable Richard A. Jones 22 United States District Judge