How Public of a Trial: US v. Bradley Manning (Philip D. Cave | The Jurist)
... Now, the public and media want contemporaneous access to unclassified written court filings, judicial orders and evidentiary documents that are in the record.
Under the Rule for Courts-Martial 806 [PDF], every court-martial accused is entitled to a public trial. The public and media can attend open sessions of court — of that there is no question and there has been no issue. Additionally, Military Rule of Evidence 505 [PDF] creates a privilege and establishes procedures related to classified information. The rules generally track with the Classified Information Procedures Act. Yet, a different question remains: how public must that trial be? Does the right to a public trial extend to providing copies of court documents in real time? In Manning, the military judge and the US are denying the media copies of court documents, even those that are likely unclassified. Manning's defense counsel is releasing copies of his own filings "with authorization."
On June 21, 2012, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a petition for an extraordinary writ with the Army Court of Criminal Appeals (ACCA) for access to these documents. Although a writ appeal petition is still pending before the ACCA, the court issued an order requesting copies of "the docket sheet, all motions and responses thereto, all rulings and orders, and verbatim transcripts or other recordings of all conferences and hearings before the court-martial...[and the] ruling and analysis of the military judge regarding the request for the above-referenced matters[.]" CCR has posted an explanation of the proceedings to its website.
The US argues that document requests related to Manning must use utilize the process provided under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). CCR has counter-argued that FOIA is a cumbersome process that delays timely access to material of current public interest about an ongoing military justice case. The issue is not limited to Manning, but occurs with some frequency in courts-martial of high public interest, such as United States v. Hasan (Maj. Nidal Hasan is accused of the November 5, 2009, on-post shootings at Fort Hood) and United States v. Bales (Sgt. Robert Bales is alleged to have perpetrated a mass shooting in Afghanistan). In this regard, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has delved into the lack of transparency [PDF] in court-martial cases ...
http://jurist.org/sidebar/2012/08/philip-cave-manning-public.php