Volume 27, Number 19 · December 4, 1980
Is the Press Losing the First Amendment?
By Ronald Dworkin
Writers have had an up and down time in the courts recently. The press is worried about a series of new judicial decisions that it believes will sharply decrease its powers and shrink the role of the First Amendment in American society. The latest of these is the amazing case of US v. Snepp, in which the Supreme Court ordered an author to turn over all his profits to the government without even holding a hearing on the issue. But the press has also won what it regards as important victories. The most recent of these is the Richmond Newspapers case, decided only a few months ago, in which the Court reversed its decision in an earlier case and held that reporters, at least in principle, have a right to attend criminal trials even when the defendant wishes to exclude them.[1]
Feature, 8800 words
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