Today Chief Judge Rodney W. Sippel signed an Order declaring certain documents as Highly Sensitive Documents (HSDs), and creating a filing and retention process for those documents outside of the electronic case management system. The accompanying flowcharts explain the filing process for HSDs.

Per the Order, documents considered HSDs are wiretap applications in any case, as well as documents in any case – whether civil or criminal – of interest to malicious actors, involving: national security, foreign sovereign interests, cybersecurity, the extent of domestic or international interests, information that would put at risk the safety of public officials or the integrity of governmental operations, non-public and sensitive intellectual property or trade secrets, or the reputational interests of the United States. Documents not generally considered HSDs would include: presentence or pretrial release reports and documents related to such reports, pleadings related to cooperation in most criminal cases, social security records, administrative records in immigration cases, and most other sealed filings not specifically mentioned in this paragraph as likely HSDs. Parties are also able to request that documents currently on CM/ECF be deemed HSDs and thus removed from the system.

Please review the full Order for more information, and contact Clerk of Court Greg Linhares at greg_linhares@moed.uscourts.gov or 314-244-7890 if you have further questions.