Articles & Reports – Newsgathering Committee – MLRC Panic Book
Search & Seizure of Media Materials
1. Subpoenas In Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, 436 U.S. 547 (1978), police officers used a search warrant to search student newspaper premises for negatives, films, and pictures revealing identities of demonstrators who assaulted police officers during a confrontation with protesters in a hospital. The newspapers argued that a subpoena, rather than a search and seizure,…
Working With Police in the Field
Download Publication “Clear the Area!” A. Reporters in the Field This chapter is designed to introduce laws regulating media and police conduct at crime scenes, and other presumably public areas. The chapter suggests some practical actions counsel can take to educate reporters going into the field and introduces counsel to legal remedies available to challenge…
Newsgathering Impediments
Download Publication “I’m in Jail!” This chapter and the next two depart stylistically from prior chapters of the Panic Book because they are designed primarily to provide practical advice regarding how a media lawyer should respond when a reporter is arrested, rather than simply authorities that can be used to respond to the crisis at…
Unpublished Photographs, Outtakes and Reporters’ Notes
Download Publication 1. Introduction Litigants in both civil and criminal proceedings often use subpoenas in an attempt to obtain unpublished materials, including photographs and “outtakes” (unaired video footage), from the media. Such materials are almost always gathered in the process of covering a newsworthy story and not as a result of being an eyewitness to…
Confidential Source Information
Download Publication 1. Supreme Court Precedent A reporter’s privilege to protect confidential sources, in one form or another, is recognized in almost every state in the country. Thus far, 35 states and the District of Columbia have adopted statutory “shield laws” that give journalists a privilege against compelled production of confidential information although the scope…
Reports Not About Judicial Proceedings
Download Publication 1. Supreme Court Precedent Any prior restraint bears a “‘heavy presumption’ against its constitutional validity,” and a plaintiff seeking to obtain a prior restraint carries a particularly heavy burden of justifying its imposition. Org. for a Better Austin v. Keefe, 402 U.S. 415, 419 (1971). That burden can be overcome only in “exceptional…
Trial-Related Orders
Download Publication A. Reports About Judicial Proceedings 1. Supreme Court Precedent Prior restraints (judicial or governmental restrictions upon speech in advance of publication) “are the most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights,” Nebraska Press Ass’n v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539, 559 (1976), and, as the Court recognized in that decision, such…
Access to Exhibits
Download Publication 1. Supreme Court Precedent There are two grounds upon which those seeking access to trial exhibits, including videotapes, may rely: the First Amendment and the common law. The common law right of access pre-dates the Constitution and is generally considered broader than the First Amendment right of access, yet it is easier to…
Access to Jurors
Download Publication 1. Supreme Court Precedent The press and public have a First Amendment right to attend voir dire, where juror names, addresses and other identifying information are generally discussed in open court. Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court, 464 U.S. 501, 507-10 (1984) (“Press Enterprise I”). In some high profile cases, courts have used written…
Orders Regulating Media Conduct
Download Publication 1. Supreme Court Precedent Orders regulating media conduct in high-profile cases usually come in the form of decorum orders.3 Decorum orders generally impose time, place, and manner restrictions on how the media can cover trials in and around the courthouse. Restrictions found in decorum orders originally issued in some recent high-profile cases have…
Trade Secret Cases
Download Publication With the recent increase in patent, trademark, and trade secret litigation, trial judges are frequently asked to close all or part of trials or pre-trial hearings in order to protect the disclosure of information a litigant considers to be a trade secret or otherwise proprietary. There is no way to know with certainty…
Trial
Download Publication 1. Supreme Court Precedent Recognizing that “[a] trial courtroom is a public place where the people generally – and representatives of the media – have a right to be present,” seven justices of the Supreme Court agreed in Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555, 578 (1980) that the First Amendment “prohibit[s]…
Voir Dire
Download Publication 1. Supreme Court Precedent Recognizing that “the process of selection of jurors has presumptively been a public process,” the United States Supreme Court held in Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court of California, 464 U.S. 501 (1984) (“Press-Enterprise I”) that the First Amendment right of public access to criminal proceedings extends to voir dire…
Evidentiary and Pretrial Hearings
Download Publication 1. Supreme Court Precedent Four years after declaring on First Amendment grounds in Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555, 578 (1980) that “[a] trial courtroom is a public place where the people generally – and representatives of the media – have a right to be present,” the United States Supreme Court…
Preliminary Hearings
Download Publication 1. Supreme Court Precedent Recognizing that “there has been a tradition of accessibility to preliminary hearings,” the United States Supreme Court held, in Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court of Cal., 478 U.S. 1, 10 (1986) (“Press- Enterprise II”), that the First Amendment right of public access to criminal proceedings extends to preliminary hearings…
“She Won’t Let Me Blog From the Courtroom”
Download Publication Introduction As the use of portable electronic devices has expanded, courts are struggling with issues raised by the use of these devices in connection with trials and other judicial proceedings. In 2009, three state appellate courts threw out criminal convictions because jurors conducted independent research with portable devices during jury deliberations.[1] These experiences,…
MLRC Panic Book: The Fastest Possible Answers in an Emergency
The MLRC Panic Book (created April 2006) is intended to serve as a desk-top resource for attorneys who represent the news media. Its objective is to provide ready citations of precedent and other authority for use in responding to an “emergency” call from a news media client instructing the attorney to be in court within…