In particular, they say, the government is hiding scandalous evidence of a U.S.-backed scheme in the 1990s to extort millions of dollars from South American drug traffickers by selling them "sentence reductions" in advance of their surrender to authorities.

The appellate brief argues that the court's use of such a "dual docketing system" violates both Ochoa's and the public's First Amendment and common-law rights of access to court proceedings, as well as eroding the separation of powers between the executive and judicial branches of government.

"The more frequently courts seal documents and proceedings in already filed cases for the ostensible purpose of furthering the goals of law enforcement, the more the courts will appear to have become partners with prosecutors in achieving those same goals," the brief says.

In Black and Strafer's newest brief, they eloquently argue:

When the two branches collaborate to perpetuate an undercover operation that is not subject to public scrutiny the public and the citizens accused will inevitably lose confidence in the independence of the judiciary.

The 'foundation of the Republic will not crack' if the federal government fails to put Fabio Ochoa in a federal prison," the brief concludes. "It will shatter, however, if the American people come to believe that their judicial system cannot be trusted.