Key facts
- An appellate court has blocked the release of much of Seton Hall University's report into Theodore McCarrick.
- The court ruled that attorney-client privilege applied to the investigation conducted by Latham & Watkins.
- Sharing the report with the Vatican did not waive the privilege, according to the judges.
- Seton Hall must release a section of the report containing self-critical analyses of its policies.
- The decision reversed a lower court's order for the university to turn over the records.
An appellate court has overturned a lower court's decision, significantly limiting the public release of Seton Hall University's report on its investigation into former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
Superior Court Judge Avoin Benjamin had initially ordered the university to release the records. However, Appellate Judges Thomas Sumners, Mark Chase, and Lorraine M. Augostini unanimously reversed this ruling, citing attorney-client privilege.
The court found that the lower court erred in its analysis, failing to recognize that Latham & Watkins, which conducted the investigation, was acting as an agent of Gibbons P.C., the law firm hired by Seton Hall. The judges stated that an investigator acting on behalf of counsel is providing services on behalf of that counsel's client.
Furthermore, the judges determined that Seton Hall sharing the report with the Vatican, which used its findings for its own report on sexual misconduct, did not waive attorney-client privilege. They noted that the university provided the report to the Vatican as part of its religious duty and to further their shared goal of investigating abuse and preventing future incidents.
However, the appellate court did order Seton Hall to release a specific portion of the report that includes self-critical analyses of the university's policies and procedures. The judges concluded that disclosing this part of the report is in the public interest and would have a minimal chilling effect on future witnesses, as the report does not disclose names and the survey of 59 seminarians was conducted anonymously.