Labor union leader John J. Dougherty has lost an attempt in federal court to reseal a years-old FBI affidavit of probable cause to search his home that was made public through litigation in state court.
U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said a federal judge’s 2006 order sealing the affidavit as part of a normal practice to protect the reputation of those subject to an investigation did not purport to tell a state court or anyone else what it could do with the affidavit should it come into possession of the document.
