Landmark Supreme Court Case · Freedom of the press
New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)
- Decided
- 1971
- Vote
- 6–3
- Opinion
- Per curiam (unsigned) opinion
- Constitutional provisions
Facts of the case
Daniel Ellsberg, a former military analyst, leaked the "Pentagon Papers," a secret Defense Department history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, to the New York Times and the Washington Post. The Nixon administration sought court orders stopping publication, arguing that it would harm national security.
The constitutional question
Could the government prevent newspapers from publishing classified information, a form of "prior restraint," in the name of national security?
The decision
No. Any prior restraint on expression comes to the Court with "a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity." The government failed to meet its heavy burden of justifying the restraint, so the newspapers could publish.
The Court's reasoning
Each of the six justices in the majority wrote separately. Several stressed that a free press must be able to expose government deception. Justice Hugo Black wrote that "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."
Why it matters
It strongly reinforced the rule against prior restraint, that government generally may not censor the press in advance, which goes back to Near v. Minnesota (1931). It is a landmark of press freedom and government accountability.