ABA won't vote to close court records

The American Bar Association has scrapped a proposal that called for closing certain arrest and court records to the public.

The proposal's sponsors said ready access to court records has led to employment and housing discrimination against people who were arrested but never convicted of crimes or who have completed sentences and returned to society.

It was to have been considered at the ABA's annual meeting here, but instead was withdrawn in the face of widespread criticism from media, business and other groups, said George Washington University law professor Stephen Saltzburg, a sponsor.

"For now we threw in the towel," Saltzburg said Sunday. "People agree there's a problem. Everyone agrees there's unfairness. But we don't have a solution that gets people saying that's one we can all support."

Saltzburg, co-chairman of the ABA's Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions, said the panel spent two years looking at ways "to improve the chances of people who have criminal records getting jobs and balancing re-entry versus safety."

The commission said in its report to the lawyers' organization that landlords and employers who have easy access to court files through records-checking services sometimes unfairly refuse to hire or rent to people who have been arrested or convicted. More than 70 million people have criminal records, the ABA said, citing Justice Department statistics.

Media organizations, leading the opposition to the proposal, said limiting public access to records would violate the First Amendment and make it harder to expose misconduct by police and prosecutors.

"We've always said that if discrimination is the problem, then directly address the problem, don't try to hide reality or hide the historical record," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The proposal urges governments to seal files immediately in cases of people who were arrested but never convicted of crimes, or whose convictions were later set aside. The records of those convicted of misdemeanors and felonies should be closed after some undefined period of law-abiding conduct, the measure says. Violent crimes, large-scale drug trafficking and similarly grave offenses would not be included.