A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that a judge went too far in blocking release of federal data about how prescription opioids were distributed.
A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel on Thursday vacated an order by Cleveland-based U.S. District Judge Dan Polster to keep the Drug Enforcement Administration database and other case information sealed from the public. The panel wrote that Polster should follow proper legal standards in deciding what information could be withheld and why it would be harmful to release it.
"However, the district court shall not enter a blanket wholesale ban on disclosure," wrote Judge Eric L. Clay. He was joined by Judge Richard Allen Griffin. Judge Ralph B. Guy Jr. agreed with their ruling against sealing court filings, but not on the order protecting the drug database.
The judges heard arguments May 2 in Cincinnati from news media attorneys who said the information was important to understanding a national public health crisis.
"I'm very encouraged that the 6th Circuit is protecting ... the public's interest in knowing about how this opioid epidemic came to be," attorney Karen Lefton, representing The Washington Post, said Thursday.
A U.S. government attorney had countered in court that making the data public could compromise ongoing DEA investigations. The Justice Department declined comment Thursday.
Polster is overseeing more than 1,500 lawsuits filed by municipalities against companies that make and distribute prescription painkillers. Guy wrote that the judge is trying to get the sides to negotiate a settlement and he didn't see the harm in leaving Polster's protective order in place for now.
Clay's opinion stated that the judge might have been trying "to use the threat of publicly disclosing the data (in a public trial) as a bargaining chip in settlement discussions." But he wrote that would be an improper reason for his protective order.
HD Media, which owns newspapers in West Virginia including the Charleston Gazette-Mail, also argued in court for the database's release.
Some of the data was made public in 2016 when the Gazette-Mail obtained it from the West Virginia attorney general's office. The Gazette-Mail used that information in a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation that found that 780 million pills flowed into the state of 1.8 million people from 2007-2012, a period when more than 1,700 West Virginians died from opioid overdoses.
Opioids are a category of drugs including prescription pills, such as OxyContin, as well as illegal ones, such as heroin and illicitly-made fentanyl.
The Associated Press has also filed public records requests seeking the information from governments that have received it. It's among three dozen news and free press advocacy organizations that have filed legal papers supporting the information's release.
Follow Dan Sewell at https://www.twitter.com/dansewell
This story has been updated to correct that West Virginia data came from state attorney general's office, not judge.
TOKYO (AP) — The American envoy to the United Nations called Friday for countries armed with atomic weapons to pursue nuclear disarmament as she visited the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki, Japan.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who became the first U.S. cabinet member to visit Nagasaki, stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy amid a growing nuclear threat in the region.
“We must continue to work together to create an environment for nuclear disarmament. We must continue to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in every corner of the world,” she said after a tour of the atomic bomb museum.
“For those of us who already have those weapons, we must pursue arms control. We can and must work to ensure that Nagasaki is the last place to ever experience the horror of nuclear weapons,” she added, standing in front of colorful hanging origami cranes, a symbol of peace.
The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. A second attack three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Nagasaki Gov. Kengo Oishi said in a statement that he believed Thomas-Greenfield's visit and her first-person experience at the museum “will be a strong message in promoting momentum of nuclear disarmament for the international society at a time the world faces a severe environment surrounding atomic weapons.”
Oishi said he conveyed to the ambassador the increasingly important role of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in emphasizing the need of nuclear disarmament.
Thomas-Greenfield's visit to Japan comes on the heels of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's official visit to the United States last week and is aimed at deepening Washington's trilateral ties with Tokyo and Seoul. During her visit to South Korea earlier this week, she held talks with South Korean officials, met with defectors from North Korea and visited the demilitarized zone.
The ambassador said the United States is looking into setting up a new mechanism for monitoring North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Russia and China have thwarted U.S.-led efforts to step up U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile testing since 2022, underscoring a deepening divide between permanent Security Council members over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
She said it would be “optimal” to launch the new system next month, though it is uncertain if that is possible.
The U.N. Security Council established a committee to monitor sanctions, and the mandate for its panel of experts to investigate violations had been renewed for 14 years until last month, when Russia vetoed another renewal.
In its most recent report, the panel of experts said it is investigating 58 suspected North Korean cyberattacks between 2017 and 2023 valued at approximately $3 billion, with the money reportedly being used to help fund its weapons development.
The United States, Japan and South Korea have been deepening security ties amid growing tension in the region from North Korea and China.
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, speaks to Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, second right, as they wait for a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, right, walk to meet Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, talk prior to a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, prepare to talk during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
