Top Oregon Court Says Much, But Not All, of 1,247 Boy Scout 'Ineligible Volunteer' Files Are Public
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In a decision considered important not only to those involved in child sex-abuse cases but to a wide array of organizations seeking to reveal or keep secret material that has been seen by a jury, Oregon’s top court on Thursday upheld a lower-court ruling that 20,000 pages of confidential Boy Scouts of America documents must be made public.
However, in disagreement with the lower court, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled (PDF) that the names of both scouts who were thought to be abuse victims and others who reported suspected abuse between 1965 and 1985 should be redacted before the 1,247 “ineligible volunteer” files are disclosed, according to the Oregonian.
News organizations, including the Oregonian, sued for access to the files after a state court civil jury that had seen them awarded nearly $20 million in 2010 in a case against the Boy Scouts concerning 1980s pedophile activities.
Reuters also has a story.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Lawyers for Boy Scouts, Corporations & Media Argue About Whether ‘Perversion Files’ are Public”
