Judge Rejects U.S. Policy of Secret Hearings
The judge, John W. Bissell of United States District Court in Newark, said deportation hearings could be closed on a case-by-case basis if the government thought an open hearing would disclose sensitive information.

The decision was the third time that the Justice Department had failed to convince a court that national security would be harmed by the disclosure of information about the 1,200 Muslim immigrants arrested in the weeks after the terrorist attacks.

The Justice Department was expected to ask for an immediate stayfrom the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.

The New Jersey lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union; The New Jersey Law Journal; and the North Jersey Media Group, which owns The Herald News of West Paterson and other papers.

They argued that the government's blanket closing of deportation hearings amounted to a violation of the detainees' due process rights and the public's right to monitor the actions of government officials.

Essentially the same arguments have been made by newspapers and the civil rights union in at least two other cases, one in federal court in Detroit that challenged the secret hearings and the other in New Jersey state court challenging the government's refusal to identify the Sept. 11 detainees.

In both cases, judges ruled against the government. The two cases are now before appeals courts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/30/nyregion/30DETA.html