In Saratoga County, a Supreme Court justice repeatedly refused to seal transgender name changeshttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/in-saratoga-county-a-supreme-court-justice-repeatedly-refused-to-seal-transgender-name-changes/ar-AA1YUoeL?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=60260d3896d0411feaa7475580d27703&ei=54 🔗 [Link: msn.com/en-us/news/us/in-saratoga-county-a-supreme-court-justice-repeatedly-refused-to-seal-transgender-name-changes/ar-AA1YUoeL/]H. Rose Schneider (18 March 2026)
A state Supreme Court justice repeatedly rejected requests to seal the records of name changes for transgender people in Saratoga County.
On Feb. 26, the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court's Third Department unanimously overturned Justice James Walsh's decision not to seal the court records of a transgender man who had changed his name. It was at least the fifth time the appellate court had overturned such a ruling by Walsh in the last two years.
"We are once again confronted with the denial of a sealing request in a Civil Rights Law article 6 proceeding - by the same Supreme Court justice - predicated on amorphous 'public interest concerns,'" Judge Eddie J. McShan wrote in the decision.
Walsh, who declined to comment to the Times Union due to the prohibition against speaking about court cases that could come before him, has given reasons in court ranging from mortgage applications to genealogy searches - reasoning attorneys considered vague, especially given the age of one of the appellants.
In February 2024, the court ruled to seal the records of a 13-year-old child's name and sex designation change in Saratoga County, after Walsh permitted the child's parents to change the name and sex designation but not to seal the records. Last October, the court issued three separate decisions on the same day to seal the name change records of transgender people after Walsh declined to do so. The repeated denials were reported last fall in the online magazine Them.
