OPEN GROOM HEARINGS, TV STATION URGES JUDGE

Las Vegas Review-Journal, Oct. 4, 1995,  Page 5B

By Warren Bates
Review-Journal

A Las Vegas television station has asked a federal judge to open 
up hearings on a lawsuit brought against the federal government by 
former workers of the U.S. Air Force's operating location near 
Groom Lake.

KLAS-TV, Channel 8, has asked U.S. District Judge Philip Pro to 
unseal a transcript of a June 20 hearing in which the workers' 
attorney Jonathan Turley was ordered to surrender files to protect 
military secrets.

Turley previously failed to get Pro to order the hearing unsealed. 
The lawsuit centers on former base workers who claim they were 
exposed to toxic fumes from open-pit burning of hazardous waste.

Last week, the government obtained a presidential exemption that 
keeps secret all aspects of projects at the base 35 miles west of 
Alamo.

Attorney Christopher Byrd,  who prepared KLAS's request, argued 
that common law and the First Amendment guarantee media and public 
access to court hearings and files "improperly shielded from 
public scrutiny."

He argued that Pro's order sealing the hearings was "narrowly 
tailored" to serve the government's "general and unsubstantiated 
claims of national security."

The court, he said, has control over sealed documents that were 
previously part of the public domain.

Byrd argued the government has to prove that "only total secrecy" 
can protect national security to keep the hearing and files 
sealed. His motion said that if an option friendlier to openness 
were available, such as editing, that route should be taken.

Nevada citizens, he argued had a compelling interest in the 
hearing and files because of the health-related nature of the 
allegations.

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