Minnesota (1931) to argue that “only governmental allegation and proof that publication must inevitably, directly, and immediately cause the occurrence of an event kindred to imperiling the safety of a transport already at sea can support even the issuance of an interim restraining order.”īrennan cited as another example an effort to avert a “nuclear holocaust.” Therefore, only if the publication would imperil a specific deployment already in harms way would an injunction be constitutional. He acknowledged, however, that the case law allowed for some narrow exceptions to the bar on prior restraint of publication. wrote that the First Amendment was an “absolute bar” to an injunction in such a case. Douglas joined Black’s opinion and wrote separately to argue that existing statutes did not give the government the power to exercise prior restraint of publication and that the executive branch had no inherent authority to do so. Quoting James Madison, Black argued that it is precisely in the circumstances before the bar, concerning information on why the country had gone to war, that Madison and the framers intended the First Amendment to apply. He also disputed the assertion of a majority of his fellow justices that the government could enjoin publication of classified documents in certain circumstances. Black’s scathing concurrence castigated the government’s position. The brief per curiam decision was accompanied by six concurring opinions and three dissenting opinions. Reprinted with permission from The Associated Press.) #The secret society and its 2300 year old manuscript freeAnd paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell." - An excerpt from Associate Justice Hugo Black's concurrence in New York Times Co. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. "The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. Sullivan (1963) - “Any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity” - and determined that the government had failed to meet that burden. In affirming the refusal to grant an injunction, the Court restated its position in Bantam Books v. The legality of Ellsberg’s actions was not the issue in the case. A former government official, Daniel Ellsberg, had provided the newspapers with the documents. The federal government had sought to prevent those newspapers from publishing excerpts, because they revealed the hitherto secret history of U.S. The Court issued a terse per curiam opinion affirming the judgment of two federal district courts that had refused to enjoin the publication of the documents in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Court rules against prior restraint in publishing classified information United States (1971), also known as the Pentagon Papers case. The issue of how the First Amendment protects the dissemination of government documents first came to the Supreme Court in New York Times Co. Washington responded that such negotiations required secrecy and that public dissemination “might have a pernicious influence on future negotiations, or produce immediate inconveniences, perhaps danger and mischief, in relation to other powers.” Under current law, it labels classified documents “confidential,” “secret,” and “top secret,” depending on their level of sensitivity.Īttempting to protect government documents from public view is as old as the Republic.ĭuring George Washington’s administration, the House of Representatives sought to review documents generated during negotiation of the Jay Treaty with Great Britain. The government of the United States, like others, protects against the dissemination of what it considers to be sensitive information. He is shown in The Times' Washington bureau Dec. #The secret society and its 2300 year old manuscript seriesRosenthal holds the June 13 issue of the Times which began the Pentagon Papers series based on classified documents.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |