From today's opinion in Doe v. Combs, by Second Circuit Judges Michael Park, William Nardini, and Maria Araújo Kahn, the key paragraphs:
"[O]ur review of a district court's decision to grant or deny an application to litigate under a pseudonym is for abuse of discretion." Sealed Plaintiff v. Sealed Defendant (2d Cir. 2008). "A district court abuses its discretion when (1) its decision rests on an error of law … or a clearly erroneous factual finding, or (2) its decision … cannot be located within the range of permissible decisions."
As numerous courts have observed, "concealing the name of a party could deprive a litigant and the court of the chance that a yet unknown witness would, upon learning … about the case, know to step forward with valuable information about the events or the credibility of witnesses." Doe v. Del Rio (S.D.N.Y. 2006) (citing Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (1980) (Brennan, J., concurring) ("Public trials come to the attention of key witnesses unknown to the parties.")). The loss of such witnesses would be particularly prejudicial here given that the incidents complained of allegedly occurred decades ago and would "be difficult to defend even with information about Plaintiff[s'] identit[ies]." The district court thus reasonably concluded that the sixth Sealed Plaintiff factor strongly favored Defendants.
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