[bzmwillemsen]

With respect to government contracts: It would really hurt a company if their detail pricing scheme was released, as a competitor could easily undercut if they had access to that information.

With respect to court documents: It could result is someone getting hurt or a mis-trial due to outside influences (ie. Rob Ford video)

There are obviously many reasons...

[cbr]

    It would really hurt a company if their detail pricing
    scheme was released, as a competitor could easily
    undercut if they had access to that information

If every company's pricing were public, wouldn't we just have healthy competition?

[chc]

We would have competition. How healthy it would be is less certain.

[danielweber]

Government contracts are usually public information already. More than once I've been at a company that sold something to a government agency, and the agency first had to publish what exactly they were buying and give someone else the ability to put in a better bid.

[mpyne]

Contracts are usually public. Each companies bid for the contract is not, and in fact there are laws against government contracting officers letting such information become public, at least while the contract negotiation phase is still ongoing.