What is the gag law? Basically, a judge cam stop the publication of a newspaper if he finds it "obscene, lewd, and lascivious"
When/Where: 1931 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Why: Thoughts on the rise of yellow journalism. Near was prosecuted for printing stories of police corruption.
The plaintiff claims that Jay was breaking Libel law, which brings up defamation of character.
How did this case travel? It was a domino affect between newspapers with overlapping owners... The Rip-Saw, The Reporter, and finally The Saturday press. An editorial in Nears' November 19th issue in 1927 claimed that Jewish gangsters were running gambling, bootlegging, and racketeering in Minneapolis, and that the cities police force, and government were doing nothing to stop it. A complaint was filed by a county attorney under the Public Nuisance Law. A Judge closed down the paper.
Each time that Nears' case went to the state, people ruled against it. When it finally got to the supreme court, it was ruled that previous restraint of the press is indeed unconstitutional. Chief Justice Hughes called the Minnesota law censoring!
The case was decided by a 5-4 vote for Near. The decision meant that prior restraint could not be used in holding up publication of newspapers, and that Minnesota had violated the first amendment by trying to prevent him from printing at all. I agree completely, just because something is one persons opinion doesn't mean its wrong, especially since the editorial was the most criticized... One cannot claim libel when research is involved... etc.
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