[JURIST] The US District Court for the Southern District of California [official website] ordered [order, PDF] Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump [political website] on Friday to release internal documents pertaining to Trump University, the terminated education program that is currently the focus of two class action lawsuits. The suits were brought [WP report] by two San Diego students who accused Trump University of making false promises to those that enrolled. The Washington Post [official website] intervened in the case and requested the court to unseal exhibits of public interest by way of the First Amendment right of access. Judge Gonzalo Curiel granted the Post’s request, finding that Trump’s status as the Republican front-runner of the 2016 presidential election places “the integrity of [the] court proceedings at issue.” While Trump argued that the release of trade secrets and business playbooks would damage the possibility of revitalizing the program, Curiel found that such assertions were not well supported. In response to the order, Trump expressed concern that the judge issued a politically biased determination. Curiel has currently set a trial date for November to settle the matter.

Trump University was a real-estate educational program that operated [CNN report] from 2005 until its closing in 2010. Though the program had no physical location and was not licensed as an educational institution, it enrolled an estimated 10,000 students in classes geared towards achieving business success. In 2013, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman [official profile] brought [NYT backgrounder] a $40 million lawsuit against Trump University accusing the program of defrauding over 5,000 students.