Also known as: right of access · access rights
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
3 senses
A First Amendment guarantee that the public and press may attend criminal trials and certain pretrial proceedings. Courts may close such proceedings only upon specific findings that an overriding interest requires closure and that the closure order is narrowly tailored.
A First Amendment guarantee that the public and press may attend criminal trials and certain pretrial proceedings. Courts may close such proceedings only upon specific findings that an overriding interest requires closure and that the closure order is narrowly tailored.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
An implied or expressly required servitude granting passage over land to reach otherwise inaccessible property or to satisfy development permit conditions. Such rights arise by necessity upon severance of commonly owned parcels or as exactions that must satisfy nexus and rough-proportionality requirements.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the right of a noncustodial parent to visit and maintain contact with a child after international relocation. Breach of access rights does not trigger an automatic return remedy, unlike breach of custody rights.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
An implied or expressly required servitude granting passage over land to reach otherwise inaccessible property or to satisfy development permit conditions. Such rights arise by necessity upon severance of commonly owned parcels or as exactions that must satisfy nexus and rough-proportionality requirements.
Under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the right of a noncustodial parent to visit and maintain contact with a child after international relocation. Breach of access rights does not trigger an automatic return remedy, unlike breach of custody rights.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
After a high-profile murder indictment, the prosecutor moves to close the entire trial to protect witness safety. The judge finds no overriding interest supported by specific evidence and no consideration of alternatives such as partial closure or protective orders. The public and press therefore retain their right of access and the trial proceeds openly.
Union members picket a store inside a privately owned shopping center. The center owner seeks to exclude the picketers as trespassers. Because the plaza functions as a public business district, the picketers retain a limited right of access for expressive activity that cannot be barred solely on the basis of private title.
After a high-profile indictment the prosecutor moves to close voir dire to protect juror privacy. The judge finds no overriding interest supported by specific evidence and fails to consider alternatives such as partial closure. The public and press therefore retain their right of access and voir dire proceeds openly.
The court must identify an overriding interest that closure is essential to preserve and must make findings demonstrating that the closure is narrowly tailored, considering reasonable alternatives to complete closure.
Supporting sources
Riverfront Developments seeks a permit to expand a retail complex. The city conditions approval on dedication of a strip of land for a public bike path and greenway. The city offers no individualized findings showing the dedication is roughly proportional to traffic or access impacts from the expansion. The condition therefore violates the requirement that exactions be roughly proportional.
Rosalind Reed owns oceanfront property and applies to rebuild a home. The coastal commission grants the permit only if Reed records an easement allowing the public to cross the beachfront portion of the lot. The easement lacks an essential nexus to any specific impact caused by the rebuild itself. The condition is therefore invalid.
Grantor conveys the northern parcel of a single tract to Grantee while retaining the southern parcel that abuts the only public road. Without an implied servitude the retained parcel would be landlocked. The court therefore recognizes an access easement by necessity across the conveyed parcel.
The condition must satisfy an essential nexus to the proposed development and must be roughly proportional in nature and extent to the projected impact. The government bears the burden of making individualized findings supporting proportionality.
Supporting sources
Yes, unless the parties clearly express a contrary intent. The implied servitude arises by necessity to permit reasonable enjoyment of the conveyed or retained property and is not limited to absolute necessity.
Supporting sources
Rights of custody include the right to determine the child's place of residence. Rights of access are limited to the right to take the child for a limited period to a place other than the habitual residence. Only breach of custody rights triggers an automatic return remedy.
Supporting sources
…Court as support for its approach, ante , at 839-840, includes no instance in which the State sought to vindicate preexisting rights of access to navigable water, and consists principally of cases involving a requirement of the dedication of land as a condition of subdivision approval. Dedication, of course, requires the surrender…