Indian Land Ventures v. Fonville & Co.

Indian Land Ventures, a company in which acting presidential chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is a principal, won summary judgment in a South Carolina state court enabling it to foreclose on some property and extinguish claims of a junior lienholder. The parties’ jointly moved to seal the summary judgment briefs and the transcripts of three depositions submitted as exhibits to the motion, including transcript of Mulvaney’s deposition. Public Citizen and Georgetown Law Professor Adam Levitin moved to intervene for the limited purpose of moving to unseal the parties’ summary judgment papers. The motion to unseal argued that the parties failed to make a showing sufficient to overcome the public’s right of access to court records under the First Amendment and South Carolina Constitution. After we filed, the court issued an order unsealing the papers.