The Sun-Times, the Tribune, and the Associated Press filed an emergency motion Monday asking the Illlinois Supreme Court for access to "sealed filings, transcripts and hearings" in the R. Kelly case. The R & B singer's trial on child pornography charges is scheduled to begin on May 9. "Records and proceedings in the Kelly Case have not only been sealed but also sealed without any judicial findings with respect to the reasons for secrecy."

Presiding judge Vincent Gaughan would hardly disagree. Gaughan's made information about the case almost impossible for reporters to come by, and when the media plaintiffs made an emergency motion to him on April 24, the judge replied, "I can understand your position. . . . If these things were held without any type of record, then you'd lose all chance of access [to] what has been taking place. [But] if I articulated and made a factual basis out of why the hearings were sealed, then I would be telling you everything." Gaughan then took all the emergency out of the motion by scheduling a hearing on it for May 8, the day before jury selection starts.

Here's the emergency motion, and here's a document submitted at the same time expanding on the plaintiffs' argument.