EDN Global Inc & Jerome Edmondson v. AT&T Mobility Services LLC et al.

District Court, N.D. Texas·Decided June 26, 2026·No. 3:23-cv-00355·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS DALLAS DIVISION EDN GLOBAL INC & JEROME § EDMONDSON § § Plaintiffs, § § Civil Action No. 3:23-CV-0355-X v. § § AT&T MOBILITY SERVICES LLC et § al., § § Defendants. § MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Before the Court are a plethora of sealing motions. (Docs. 135, 161, 162, 191, 192, 194, 195, 198, 199, 200, 201, 204, 205, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234). The Court’s omnibus order is the result of a page-by-page, line-by-line analysis weighing the public’s right of access against the interests favoring nondisclosure. Such analysis “is not easy, but it is fundamental” to securing the public’s right of access to judicial records.1 Having carefully considered the motions, the Court now makes the following rulings regarding the sealing requests. I. Legal Standard The Court takes very seriously its duty to protect the public’s access to judicial records.2 Transparency in judicial proceedings is a fundamental element of the rule of law—so fundamental that sealing and unsealing orders are immediately 1 June Med. Servs. v. Phillips, 22 F.4th 512, 521 (5th Cir. 2022). 2 See Binh Hoa Le v. Exeter Fin. Corp., 990 F.3d 410, 418 (5th Cir. 2021). appealable under the collateral-order doctrine.3 The public’s right to access judicial records is independent from—and sometimes even adverse to—the parties’ interest.4 That’s why the judge must serve as the representative of the people and, indeed, the

First Amendment, in scrutinizing requests to seal. Litigants may have a legitimate interest in confidential discovery secured by a protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c). However, “[t]hat a document qualifies for a protective order under Rule 26(c) for discovery says nothing about whether it should be sealed once it is placed in the judicial record.”5 Here, the parties conducted discovery under a Rule 26(c) protective order and marked various documents “confidential.” Now that a party wishes to file some of those documents

under seal on the judicial record, a much more strenuous standard kicks in. “To decide whether something should be sealed, the court must undertake a document-by-document, line-by-line balancing of the public’s common law right of access against the interests favoring nondisclosure.”6 The presumption against sealing is even greater where, “the case involves matters of particularly public interest.”7 If the Court seals information, it must give sufficient reasons to allow for

appellate review.8 Finally, “[p]ublicly available information cannot be sealed.”9

3 June Med. Servs., 22 F.4th at 519. 4 Id. 5 Id. at 521. 6 Id. (cleaned up). 7 Id. at 520 (cleaned up). 8 Binh Hoa Le, 990 F.3d at 419. 9 June Med. Servs., 22 F.4th at 520. II. Application A. Docs. 134, 135 Defendants AT&T Mobility Services LLC; AT&T Enterprises, LLC; and AT&T

Inc. (collectively “AT&T”) move for leave to file under seal (Doc. 135) two exhibits attached to Plaintiffs EDN Global, Inc. d/b/a EDN Communication and Jermone Edmondson’s (collectively “EDN”) Reply in Support of Motion for Reconsideration (Doc. 134). In support of nondisclosure, AT&T makes two arguments. First, the documents contain sensitive and detailed financial information that AT&T has never publicly disclosed which could cause AT&T competitive harm.10 Second, the

documents contain specific amounts, dates, and corresponding task orders for payments made to AT&T under the FirstNet Contract, all of which constitute confidential information to a third party.11 Courts have consistently held that documents containing “private financial information” may be sealed if the movant makes “specific allegations regarding competitive harm.”12

The Court finds the interests in support of nondisclosure outweigh the public’s common law right of access to the information at issue here. The documents contain AT&T’s private financial information, and AT&T has explained that disclosing such

10 Doc. 135 at 6. 11 Id. 12 Bennett v. Douglaston Realty Mgmt. Corp., No. 3:24-CV-2787-S, 2025 WL 2443385, at *1–2 (N.D. Tex. Aug. 25, 2025) (Scholer, J.) (citing, inter alia, Vantage Health Plan, Inc. v. Willis-Knighton Med. Ctr., 913 F.3d 443, 451 (5th Cir. 2019)). information would likely cause it competitive harm because “AT&T’s FirstNet program is not the only service geared towards first responders.”13 So the Court will seal the relevant exhibits.

Because “[t]he public’s common law right of access is limited with respect to . . . confidential contracts that are not between the parties to this lawsuit,” courts also consistently hold that “protecting the confidential information of third parties[ ] outweighs the public’s common law right of access” to that information.14 For this additional reason, the Court finds that the interests in support of nondisclosure outweigh the public’s common law right of access to the information at issue here. The documents contain third parties’ confidential information, and the

FirstNet Contract specifically prohibits disclosure of any terms of the FirstNet Contract.15 Accordingly, the Court GRANTS AT&T’s motion. (Doc. 135). The Court DIRECTS the Clerk’s Office to unseal EDN’s Reply in Support of Motion for Reconsideration and Exhibit C attached to the motion (Docs. 134, 134-3); however, Exhibits A and B attached to the motion shall remain under seal (Docs. 134-1, 134-2).

13 Doc. 135 at 7. See, e.g., Blue Yonder Grp., Inc. v. Kinaxis Inc., No. 3:20-CV-03636-K, 2024 WL 4796229, at *4 (N.D. Tex. May 30, 2024) (Kinkeade, J.) (sealing information about a company’s market strategy that was not readily available to the public). 14 MIECO LLC v. Pioneer Nat. Res., USA, Inc., No. 3:21-CV-1781-B, 2022 WL 18034481, at *2 (N.D. Tex. Oct. 28, 2022) (Boyle, J.). 15 Doc. 135 at 9. B. Docs. 161, 162 EDN moves for leave to file under seal Plaintiffs’ Response to Defendants’ Expedited Motion for Protective Order and to Quash Plaintiffs’ Deposition Notice

along with the Appendix in Support. (Docs. 161, 162). EDN filed this motion because its response and appendix contain citations to and quotes from Christopher C. Sambar and Ms. Melissa Ayala’s deposition transcripts, which AT&T’s counsel designated as confidential. The Court cannot conduct a “line-by-line” balancing of the public’s right of access merely based on an assertion that some confidential information is buried within a deposition. A moving party must: (1) identify precisely what information (pages, lines, etc.) the party wants

sealed; (2) conduct a line-by-line, page-by-page analysis explaining and briefing why the risks of disclosure outweigh the public’s right of access; and (3) explain why no other viable alternative to sealing exists. EDN did not do that here—understandably as EDN disagrees with the designation of the depositions as confidential. The Court emphasizes that redaction “is often practicable and appropriate as the least restrictive means of safeguarding sensitive information.”16

The Court DENIES the motion, as the motion is facially insufficient under Fifth Circuit case law that governs the sealing of judicial records. The Court ORDERS AT&T to file a supplemental brief specifically identifying the challenged material and providing a line-by-line justification for each potential proposed redaction within 28 days of this Order. Failure to do so will result in the unsealing

16 United States v. Ahsani, 76 F.4th 441, 453 (5th Cir. 2023) of Docs. 161, 162.

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EDN Global Inc & Jerome Edmondson v. AT&T Mobility Services LLC et al., (N.D. Tex. 2026).

EDN Global Inc & Jerome Edmondson v. AT&T Mobility Services LLC et al. (EDN Global Inc & Jerome Edmondson v. AT&T Mobility Services LLC et al.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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