## Facts

- A consumer filed a putative nationwide class action alleging that Trump University used misrepresentations and high-pressure sales tactics to sell expensive real-estate seminars and programs.
- During motion practice, internal Trump University “playbooks” and related operational manuals (including sales scripts and “upsell” tactics) were filed in connection with class-certification proceedings.
- A magistrate judge permitted the playbooks to be filed under seal, accepting the argument that they constituted trade secrets in their entirety.
- A news organization moved to intervene for the limited purpose of challenging the sealing and sought public access to the playbooks and related filings.
- The defendant opposed unsealing, asserting the materials contained proprietary, competitively sensitive information warranting continued sealing.

## Issues

1. Whether a nonparty news organization may intervene for the limited purpose of seeking access to sealed judicial records.
2. Whether materials submitted with a class-certification motion are subject to a strong presumption of public access under the common law and/or the First Amendment.
3. What standard governs sealing for those materials (compelling reasons versus good cause), and whether the defendant met that burden.
4. Whether asserted trade-secret and confidentiality interests justified sealing the playbooks in whole or only supported limited, targeted redactions.

## Decision

- The court granted the news organization’s motion to intervene for the limited purpose of challenging the sealing of court records.
- The court held that the playbooks and related materials filed with the class-certification motion were more than tangentially related to the merits and therefore subject to a strong presumption of public access.
- Applying the “compelling reasons” standard, the court ordered most of the playbooks and associated filings unsealed.
- The court rejected blanket sealing based on a generalized claim that the playbooks, taken as a whole, were trade secrets.
- The court permitted only narrowly tailored redactions for specific portions shown to qualify as confidential commercial information or trade secrets.

## Legal Principles

- Nonparties, including media entities, may intervene to challenge sealing orders and seek access to judicial records.
- Records submitted in connection with motions more than tangentially related to the merits (including class-certification motions) trigger a strong presumption of public access.
- To seal such records, the proponent must show compelling reasons supported by specific factual findings; conclusory assertions of competitive harm are insufficient.
- Trade-secret protection may justify limited redactions, but sealing must be narrowly tailored to genuinely confidential, competitively sensitive content rather than imposed categorically on entire documents.

## Conclusion

The court permitted limited media intervention and substantially unsealed class-certification record materials, holding that generalized trade-secret assertions could not overcome the presumption of public access and allowing only specific, narrowly tailored redactions for proven confidential business information.


Cohen v. Trump, No. 3:13-cv-02519-GPC-WVG, 2016 WL 3036302 (S.D. Cal. May 27, 2016)