The National Newspaper Association (NNA) has joined a campaign by journalism and good government organizations to require federal courts to end the sale of public documents through the courts’ PACER system. NNA joins others in promoting free access to these records.
Sens. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, and Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, have reintroduced the Open Courts Act of 2026, a piece of legislation NNA has supported in other forms in previous years. It would direct the administrative offices of U.S. courts to develop new electronic systems to make court documents electronically available at no cost.
While court filings are typically public in paper form at their courts of origin, the electronic PACER requires journalists to set up accounts and pay for access to documents.
The Kennedy-Wyden bill would also require consolidation of separate electronic filing systems by district courts, courts of appeal and bankruptcy courts. The sponsors say existing separate systems are “a recipe for inefficiency and vulnerability.”
Kennedy said when the bill was introduced: “Americans should not have to sell plasma or wrestle with clunky government websites just to read public court records. PACER is old, very expensive and extremely burdensome to use.
“The Open Courts Act would drag this outdated system into the 21st century, protect court records from hackers and give taxpayers a better deal. Government services ought to serve the American people — not make them want to put their head through a wall.”
Wyden said a redesign of the systems would save taxpayers more than $60 million a year.
The PACER system has been vulnerable to hacks and complaints by users in recent years.
NNA Chair Martha Diaz Aszkenazy, publisher of the San Fernando (California) Valley Sun and El Sol, said NNA was delighted to join a coalition led by an organization called Fix the Courts to get the legislation over the finish line. The groups sent this letter of support to the Senate leadership this week.
“At long last,” Aszkenazy said, “we hope Congress is ready to move the courts’ electronic systems into the 21st Century. Courts have traditionally been the most open of the federal government branches but when access to their records requires unusual expense online or impossible physical searches in courthouses, the public loses trust.
“Justice Warren Burger once said, ‘People in an open society do not demand infallibility from their institutions, but it is difficult for them to accept what they are prohibited from observing.’ In today’s digital worlds, observing court processes should be easy and free, both for journalists and for our readers. I am urging NNA publishers to get behind this legislation and make their readers aware of the opportunity Senators Kennedy and Wyden have provided to improve our federal courts.”
The legislation is S 4667, which also addresses other federal online systems. It can be followed at Congress.gov at this link.
