Eckhart v. Fox News Network, LLC

• Court: District Court, S.D. New York
• Decided: March 11, 2025
• Docket: 1:20-cv-05593
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

JENNIFER ECKHART,

Plaintiff,

No. 20-cv-5593 (RA) v.

ORDER FOX NEWS NETWORK, LLC and ED HENRY,

Defendants.

RONNIE ABRAMS, United States District Judge: Before the Court are (1) Defendant Fox News’ motion to seal portions of Plaintiff Jennifer Eckhart’s opposition to summary judgment, Dkt. 467, (2) Eckhart’s motion to seal portions of her opposition to summary judgment, Dkt. 468, and (3) Fox News’ motion to seal portions of its reply in support of its motion for summary judgment, Dkt. 456. For the following reasons, the motions are granted. On December 2, 2024, the Court held that several categories of information in this case were entitled to be sealed under the standard set forth in Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, 435 F.3d 110, 119–20 (2d Cir. 2006). See Dkt. 431. Those categories include (1) information concerning third-party women who claim they had sexual and/or romantic relations with Defendant Ed Henry, (2) the names and identifying information of third-party employees at Fox News who were involved in complaints and internal investigations, (3) personal contact information of non-parties, and (4) Fox News’ confidential competitive business information. As the Court explained, the presumption of access to these categories of information was outweighed by countervailing interests, including the need to protect the privacy of third parties and to prevent competitive harms to Fox News. See id. at 4–6. Each of the three sealing requests before the Court seek to seal information within these categories. See Dkt. 467 (Fox News’ request to seal in Eckhart’s opposition information about third-party women and non-party employees who were involved in complaints and investigations, personal contact information and its confidential business information); Dkt. 468 (Eckhart’s request to seal in her opposition information to protect identities of non-parties); Dkt. 456 (Fox News’ request to seal in its reply information about third-party women and non-party employees who were involved in complaints and investigations and its confidential business information). Accordingly, for the reasons stated in the December 2, 2024 opinion, the motions to seal are granted. To the extent necessary, the parties shall re-file, on the public docket, redacted versions of any opposition and reply papers that are currently under seal no later than March 24, 2025. See Dkt. 468 (Eckhart’s letter stating that sealed documents will need to be re-filed with redactions). The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to terminate the motions pending at docket numbers 418 and 456. SO ORDERED. Dated: March 11, 2025 ke New York, New York Ronnie Abrams United States District Judge