United States v. Raffoul, Hanna Badaoui. Appeal of the Pittsburgh Press Company

OPINION OF THE COURT

MANSMANN, Circuit Judge.

This case presents the question of what procedure is appropriate to protect the First Amendment rights of the press and the public who are present in court when a closure motion is made during the course of a criminal trial. We expressly reserved that question in United States v. Criden, 675 F.2d 550, 560 (3d Cir.1982) (Criden II). In Criden II we required‘that motions for closure of pretrial hearings must be posted on the docket and that, before closing a pretrial hearing, the court must consider alternatives to closure and state on the record its…