[JURIST] The Vermont Supreme Court Friday ruled [opinion] that a decision made by former state governor Howard Dean [official profile] and Vermont's secretary of state to seal 93 boxes of sensitive papers collected during his term was legal. When he left office in 2003 Dean decided to seal the papers for ten years and joked with reporters that he "didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor." During his 2004 presidential campaign, Washington-based group Judicial Watch [advocacy website] sued to have the documents revealed and a state trial judge ruled that Dean and the secretary of state did not have the authority to seal the documents [JURIST report], but the Vermont high court disagreed. Dean is currently chairman of the Democratic National Committee [official website]. AP has more.