Digital Extra

In an 11-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi ruled that releasing the documents now would jeopardize the ongoing investigation by tipping off potential suspects and prematurely implicating them.

"Any legitimate reason for public access at this stage of the proceedings is clearly outweighed by the damage that would result to an ongoing criminal investigation caused by the premature release of information garnered from warrant proceedings," Lisi wrote in the opinion, dated July 3.

The barge North Cape and the tugboat Scandia ran aground on Moonstone Beach Jan. 19, spilling 828,000 gallons of fuel oil, killing much wildlife and touching off a flurry of government activity, including the grand jury investigation into the cause of the accident and its impact.

A federal magistrate issued a search warrant for the tugboat on Feb. 13 and then sealed the search warrant and accompanying affidavits that same day. The sealing prompted the Journal's request for the documents.

The Journal argued that it had a legal right of access to the records on three bases: a federal statute, the First Amendment and previous court rulings, called the common law. But siding with U.S. Attorney Sheldon Whitehouse, Lisi rejected each argument and declined to unseal the documents or even disclose portions of them.

Lisi's holdings on the First Amendment and common law claims were perhaps the most significant because a federal court in New England had never decided whether the public had access to legal documents on those grounds, especially when a grand jury had yet to hear much of the evidence in the documents.

The Journal had no right to the documents under the First Amendment, Lisi said, because there was no clear precedent for providing materials during warrant proceedings and because doing so would notify suspects of the investigation.

She denied the Journal's bid for the materials under the common law in order to protect the privacy of people mentioned in the materials and to prevent any suspects from destroying evidence or tailoring their testimony before a grand jury.

The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provide a right to access documents supporting an application for a search warrant, Lisi said, but not when the government can demonstrate that such access would harm its investigation.

Besides the grand jury investigation, other government efforts prompted by the oil spill include a review of tug and barge operations by the Coast Guard and barge industry, state Senate bills aimed at strengthening the regulation of the oil-barge industry and a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives intended to tighten federal tugboat regulations.