Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart 1976
| Author | Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw |
| Pages | 51-55 |
Page 51
Petitioners: Nebraska Press Association, et al.
Respondents: Judge Hugh Stuart, et al.
Petitioners' Claim: That a court order preventing the media from reporting about a criminal trial violated the First Amendment.
Chief Lawyer for Petitioners: E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr.
Chief Lawyer for Respondents: Harold Mosher, Assistant Attorney General of Nebraska
Justices for the Court: Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr., Warren E. Burger (writing for the Court), Thurgood Marshall, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William H. Rehnquist, John Paul Stevens, Potter Stewart, Byron R. White
Justices Dissenting: None
Date of Decision: June 30, 1976
Decision: The court order violated the First Amendment freedom of the press.
Significance: The Court said that in most cases, allowing the media to report criminal trials will not interfere with the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.
Page 52
On October 19, 1975, Erwin Simants was arrested and charged with murdering six members of the Kellie family in Sutherland, Nebraska. Sutherland was a small rural town with only 850 people.
Press coverage of trials, such as at the Bruno Hauptmann trial in 1935, makes it hard to keep juries from making decisions about a case before hearing all the facts.
The Simants case immediately received local, state, and national media coverage. Simants' attorney and the prosecuting attorney asked the Lincoln County Judge to issue a gag order to stop the media from reporting the case. Both attorneys were afraid that newspaper and television coverage would prevent Simants from getting a fair trial.
The county judge issued the gag order. The next day members of the news media, including the Nebraska Press Association, asked the court to remove the gag order. The county court transferred the case to the state district court, where Judge Hugh Stuart heard the case. Judge Stuart issued his own gag order, preventing the media from reporting about a confession Simants made to the police, a note Simants wrote on the night of the murders, and charges that the murders occurred during a sexual attack.
The media appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court, arguing that the gag order violated the First Amendment freedom of the press. The Nebraska Supreme Court disagreed and approved the gag order with a few changes. The...
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