ORLANDO, Fla. Oct 15 (Reuters) - A Florida judge ruled on Tuesday that "drug court" hearings assessing the rehabilitation progress of Noelle Bush, a niece of President Bush, may not be closed to the public as she had sought.

Noelle Bush, who is Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's daughter and has had several well-publicized brushes with the law this year over drugs, asked the Orange County court 10 days ago for her future drug court proceedings to be closed to the public.

The motion sought to preserve her right to privacy in health care information and to a fair trial. The Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel opposed it.

Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead, who has been overseeing the case of Noelle Bush, 25, said the court was denying the defendant's motion on the grounds that open access was a critical part of the success of drug courts.

"Open access is critical so that the public can see that drug court is working to reduce the recidivism rate and to return individuals to a productive state," he wrote in the ruling. "Open access is necessary in order to demonstrate that the program is worthy of public support."

The drug court system is a pretrial program for people with drug problems in which a defendant has to undergo counseling and treatment over a minimum one-year period, after which charges pending may be dropped. It stresses rehabilitation and breaking the addiction that has led to offenses.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Whitehead noted that in drug court proceedings, health care issues were discussed at detailed "staffing" meetings that are private, while regular status hearings in court were short and involved little or no discussion of medical or treatment information.

COURT HEARING THURSDAY

Noelle Bush's next appearance at a drug court "status hearing" is scheduled for Thursday.

While Tuesday's ruling denied Noelle Bush's motion for closed proceedings, the Orange County court decided in a ruling last month not to force staff at the drug center where she is being treated to answer police questions in a cocaine possession investigation. That decision was viewed as a victory for her and for privacy rights in general.

Noelle Bush was ordered into a rehabilitation program after she was arrested in January for allegedly trying to buy the anti-anxiety drug Xanax using a false prescription. She was sent to jail for three days in July for contempt of court after she violated terms of her treatment program.

On Sept. 10, police in Orlando said Noelle Bush was under investigation for possession of cocaine after the Center for Drug-Free Living she was attending complained that a small lump of crack cocaine had been found in her shoe.

An employee of the center wrote a statement for investigators, but ripped it up when a supervisor instructed workers not to cooperate, according to police reports. Prosecutors then asked the court to compel center workers to divulge what they knew about the incident, but the court ruled they should not have to do so.