AP sues to unseal immigration court records hidden by federal rule
Nothing here is sealed. Rule 5.2(c) does not hide the file; it relocates the public, making the record available only at the courthouse. The AP's sharp argument is that this is a CONTENT-BASED restriction — the trigger is the subject of the lawsuit, not the sensitivity of any document, so the identical page is remotely readable in a contract case and not in a removal case. Content-based means strict scrutiny. And the docket being made hard to reach is the first point at which anyone outside the executive branch reviews the case: immigration judges are DOJ employees and the BIA is appointed by the Attorney General.
Nothing here is sealed. Rule 5.2(c) does not hide the file; it relocates the public, making the record available only at the courthouse. The AP's sharp argument is that this is a CONTENT-BASED restriction — the trigger is the subject of the lawsuit, not the sensitivity of any document, so the identical page is remotely readable in a contract case and not in a removal case. Content-based means strict scrutiny. And the docket being made hard to reach is the first point at which anyone outside the executive branch reviews the case: immigration judges are DOJ employees and the BIA is appointed by the Attorney General.
The Associated Press sued the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on September 15, 2026, asking a federal court to declare Rule 5.2(c) unconstitutional as applied to immigration cases — the rule that lets parties pull the whole file remotely while everyone else gets only the docket.
Why it matters: Two of the highest-volume civil dockets in the country have been remotely unreadable since 2007. But the rule was written to protect the people in those files — an asylum claim names the persecutors, the town, and the relatives still living there.
Date to watch: Whether the court treats the rule as content-based — that single characterisation probably decides the case
Sources:
- JURIST — AP challenges court access limits (2026-09-16)
https://www.jurist.org/news/2026/09/associated-press-challenges-federal-court-limits-on-online-access-to-immigration-case-records/ - I.S. Law Firm — inside immigration courts 2026 (2026-07-29)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1iDX2-pv8E - Cornell LII — Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 (2007-12-01)
https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_5.2 - KING 5 — removal orders rising sharply (2026-07-24)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M97mDPgxDg - RCFP — asking the courts to lift the restriction (2026-09-01)
https://www.rcfp.org/briefs-comments/federal-court-immigration-rule-change/
The Throughline decodes today's headline — with receipts. Every claim is sourced; links below.
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