Jane Doe v. College of New Jersey – 3d Cir. – May 18, 2021
https://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/202469p.pdf
Motion to proceed anonymously denied.
From the opinion –
We turn to the non-exhaustive, multi-factor test we employed in Doe v. Megless, Doe v. Megless, 654 F.3d 404, 408 (3d Cir. 2011) where we asked whether the plaintiff presented a reasonable fear of severe harm meriting an exception to “the public’s common law right of access to judicial proceedings.” 654 F.3d at 408 (citation omitted); see Fed. R. Civ. P. 10(a) (“The title of the complaint must name all the parties[.]”). The factors in favor of anonymity include:
(1) the extent to which the identity of the litigant has been kept confidential; (2) the bases upon which disclosure is feared or sought to be avoided, and the substantiality of these bases; (3) the magnitude of the public interest in maintaining the confidentiality of the litigant's identity; (4) whether, because of the purely legal nature of the issues presented or otherwise, there is an atypically weak public interest in knowing the litigant's identities; (5) the undesirability of an outcome adverse to the pseudonymous party and attributable to his refusal to pursue the case at the price of being publicly identified; and (6) whether the party seeking to sue pseudonymously has illegitimate ulterior motives.
Megless, 654 F.3d at 409 (citation omitted). The factors advising against anonymity include:
(1) the universal level of public interest in access to the identities of litigants; (2) whether, because of the subject matter of this litigation, the status of the litigant as a public figure, or otherwise, there is a particularly strong interest in knowing the litigant's identities, beyond the public's interest which is normally obtained; and (3) whether the opposition to pseudonym by counsel, the public, or the press is illegitimately motivated.
Id. (citation omitted).
