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Law360 (May 4, 2021, 6:15 PM EDT) -- A civil rights watchdog group has dropped its federal lawsuit against a judge for the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas after he and others in Allegheny County agreed to offer online access to court proceedings for observers.
The Abolitionist Law Center on Monday told the federal court in Pittsburgh that it was voluntarily dismissing its case against Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Anthony Mariani, who had previously required observers to come to his Pittsburgh courtroom in person even when others were participating virtually.
"Judge Mariani essentially started offering virtual access a few days after we first filed the lawsuit, and the President Judge put out an order making that official for the rest of the court," Nicolas Y. Riley of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at the Georgetown University Law Center told Law360 on Tuesday.
With a stay on the case set to expire on Monday, the watchdog group felt comfortable withdrawing the suit, Riley said.
The Abolitionist Law Center, a nonprofit law firm operating a court-watching program, had filed the federal civil rights lawsuit in early March, claiming Judge Mariani had improperly denied its observers virtual access to criminal court proceedings.
The suit said the judge and his staff were working from his courtroom in the Allegheny County Courthouse, and required members of the public to attend in person in order to watch what was going on there — including probation-violation hearings, sentencing hearings, plea hearings, nonjury trials and pretrial conferences — even when other parties were participating virtually.
President Judge Kim Berkeley Clark issued a courtwide order on March 26 requiring judges to offer remote public access to their proceedings, and the ALC said it would pause its suit and see how well the courts followed the order.
Allegheny County resumed some in-person criminal jury trials on April 27, using its largest courtrooms and Pittsburgh's convention center to allow for social distancing, with provisions for press and the public to observe online or from an alternate courtroom. Civil and juvenile division proceedings were still being conducted online.
"There have been some hiccups, but for the most part they've been following the order," Riley said. "It probably took more effort than it should have."
A staff member who answered the phone at Judge Mariani's chambers declined to comment.
The Abolitionist Law Center is represented by Witold J. Walczak and Sara J. Rose of the ACLU of Pennsylvania and Nicolas Y. Riley, Robert D. Friedman and Jennifer Safstrom of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center.
Judge Mariani is represented by Geri St. Joseph of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.
The case is Abolitionist Law Center v. Judge Anthony Mariani, case number 2:21-cv-00285, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
--Additional reporting by Matt Fair. Editing by Nicole Bleier.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
