As Office of US Courts withdraws records for five top benches, can we make them open?

From http://boingboing.net/2014/08/27/as-office-of-us-courts-withdra.html BoingBoing:

Rogue archivist Carl Malamud writes, "The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has announced that they are removing the archives for 5 important courts from their infamous PACER system. PACER is the ten-cent-per-page access to U.S. District and Appeals courts dockets and opinions."

Public.Resource.Org, in cooperation with our friends at the Free Law Project and the Internet Archive have sent in formal proposals to 5 Chief Judges asking for an Administrative Order to access this data...

Our judiciary is based on the idea that we conduct justice public, not in star chambers and smoke-filled back rooms. Our system of justice is based on access to the workings of our courts, and when you hide those workings behind a pay wall, you have imposed a poll tax on access to justice.

Alternativ​es to Westlaw

For federal court cases, including bankruptcy courts, one can get court filings online at www.pacer.gov. One has to register for it,, though there is no registration fee. However, all registered users will be charged as follows:
•Use of web-based PACER systems will generate an $.10 per page charge.
•Audio files of court hearings retrieved via PACER will generate a $2.40 per file charge.
It is not as easy to search as Westlaw, and many times you need to have a case number.

For actual reported court opinions - appellate cases for the most part, including the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court - you can find a lot of those on the professional site for Findlaw at http://lp.findlaw.com/. This site is available on the free Internet.

Since most trial court opinions are not reported or published, one should look for news stories in newspaper databases in
the region where the case took place.

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