Judge Stevens ruled that the CT Diocese of Bridgeport must give the media access to the more than 12,000 pages of discovery documents collected in conjunction with the 23 clergy sex abuse lawsuits.  0160; They were settled in 2001.  0160; The Diocese was turned down on its request to have a lower court order providing the media the right to the documents Today's decision in Connecticut Superior Court by Judge Barry Stevens could mean a major public relations hit to the Roman Catholic Church in America and perhaps the end of Edward Cardinal Egan's career. 

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg ruled no on the Diocese's request to keep documents about the clergy sex abuse cases sealed until that court makes the decision whether to hear the case this fall.  0160; The sealing of those documents had been part of a settlement by the Diocese in 2001 of 23 sex-abuse lawsuits filed against seven priests in that Diocese of Bridgeport.  It's the second piece of bad legal news this month for the Diocese of Bridgeport.  0160;

In 2001, the Connecticut Diocese of Bridgeport has been fighting in court, including three motions to the U.S. Supreme Court, to keep the 12,000 pages of discovery documents related to clergy sex abuse sealed.  0160; The documents will become accessible to the media on or before December 1, 2009.  Like many industries, law has had a bad year.  0160; Those BigFoot white shoe law firms are laying off associates, deferring the start date of those promised jobs, cutting salaries, and making partners kick in up to 15% of their pay. 

That brief had been submitted seemingly as a legal tactic by the Diocese to keep sealed more than 12,000 pages of discovery documents from 23 clergy sex-abuse lawsuits.  0160; When the Diocese settled those lawsuits in 2001, a condition was that the material remain sealed.  The allegations of such sustained sex abuse in one parish can reinforce what might be disclosed when the discovery documents Since Sunday, American Roman Catholicism has received considerable media attention in the New England area - which quickly went national and global.  0160;

Incidentally, after the Connecticut Diocese of Bridgeport releases to the media, under court order [here's the Diocese's statement on that], the 12,000 pages of discovery documents from the 2001 settlement of lawsuits related to that, the weary nation/world is bound to turn its eyes to the young man from RI who stood toe-to-toe with Holy Mother Church. Controversy sells.  0160; And a religious controversy sells better than a secular one.