Overview

• The court held about 2½ hours of public arguments on whether to unmask more than a dozen people still concealed in the Maryland attorney general’s 2023 report on decades of abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
• A Baltimore judge previously ordered the identities of all but three of the 46 initially redacted names to be disclosed, but appeals have kept many names hidden for over two years.
• Lawyers for the petitioners argued the attorney general lacked authority to conduct the grand jury–based probe or release the report and said naming uncharged individuals violates secrecy and due process protections.
• State lawyers countered that disclosure serves the public’s interest in understanding institutional failures, noting the report documents abuse by 156 clergy and staff affecting more than 600 children and young adults since the 1940s.
• Appellants include one alleged abuser, 14 current or former archdiocesan officials, and two priests from Erie, Pennsylvania, as survivors press for full transparency while a separate motion to dismiss the archdiocese’s bankruptcy remains active.