SDNY COURTHOUSE, Nov 10 – On October 9
Inner City Press covered the habeas corpus hearing on
Oscar Belgal, shot in Marble Hill by ICE the day before,
DOJ wrote in they intended to detain him in MDC Brooklyn,
and live tweeted here
and below.
On October 14 it was refiled in EDNY in
Brooklyn, and assigned to Judge Hector Gonzalez. The
filings were not available on PACER. So Inner City Press
wrote in, and Judge Gonzalez to his credit docketed it.
Then on October 21: "ORDER: Interested party Matthew
Russell Lee's request is granted to the extent he seeks
public access to filings that are not filed under
seal. The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to
make all previous and future filings on the docket, except
for those filed under seal, publicly available via remote
access."
On November 4, the day after Inner City
Press made similar requests to seven EDNY judges, DOJ
spokesman John Marzulli targeted Inner City Press and got
the District Executive's Office to confiscate its press
passes to the Huawei and Clase trials and have it escorted
out of the courthouse.
Six days later, still out, Inner City Press
wrote to Judge Gonzalez on another habeas case he has:
While grateful for the transparency, it
appears that the Clerk of Court misperceived your Order:
today November 10 Belgal's initial petition, and all
filings up to October 22, on PACER (outside the
courthouse) are still listed as "You do not have
permission to view this document."
Since
your October 22 order, your EDNY District Judge
colleague Judge Rachel P. Kovner has docketed an Inner
City Press request in Cepeda Guaman v. Maldonado,
1:26-cv-05827 - RPK, adding that "As a one-time
courtesy, the Court has docketed the request at Dkt.
#16. In the future, requests for court action should be
filed through ECF or the Clerk's Office."
I
regret that on November 4, 2026 the District Executive's
Office confiscated my EDNY press pass in such a way that
I am no longer able to access the Clerk's office as I
did before. I am again emailing this request to
Chambers. There is more to explain but I am keeping this
to one page.
Thank you for your consideration. A PDF
of this letter is attached for ease of docketing.
