I filed a motion to unseal and oppose pseudonymity last week in Doe v. Town of Lisbon (thanks to my students Ireland Larsen, Matthew Veldman, Erin Yonchak for their work on it), and I thought readers might find it interesting. The backstory, from a 2020 N.H. Supreme Court decision (see also this February post):
The [New Hampshire] DOJ currently maintains a list of police officers who have engaged in misconduct reflecting negatively on their credibility or trustworthiness. The list, formerly known as the "Laurie List," is now called the EES [Exculpatory Evidence Schedule]. See State v. Laurie (N.H. 1995) (overturning a defendant's murder conviction because the State failed to disclose certain employment records of a testifying detective that "reflect[ed] negatively on the detective's character and credibility").
The EES list is public, and is also used by defense lawyers to challenge the officers' credibility on the stand, which I take it makes the officers on the list far less employable. Police officers or ex-police-officers therefore often sue to have their name removed from the EES, and state trial courts have allowed such lawsuits to proceed under seal. (I doubt that's permissible, but that's a separate matter.) In this case, the plaintiff police officer included federal constitutional claims as well as state law claims in his filing, so the Town of Lisbon removed the case to federal court, where it's now proceeding pseudonymously instead of under seal. Here is the rationale for sealing from Doe's motion to seal in state court, which I expect will be the argument he will for pseudonymity as well:
