The Press: Fine Line

The question before the U.S. Supreme Court was: When do newspaper reports of a crime prejudice a defendant's right to a fair trial? The question was an old one in Maryland: Baltimore's municipal judges had a ten-year-old regulation that forbade publication of pre-trial confessions in local crime cases. Three Baltimore radio stations had ignored that regulation, and in 1949 had been convicted and fined for contempt of court. They had won a reversal in the court of appeals of Maryland (TIME, June 20).

Last week the Supreme Court refused to review the case. As usual, the court gave no reason for its refusal. But Justice Felix Frankfurter tried to clarify matters in a 25-page opinion. The line where a free press infringes on the individual's right to a fair trial, he said, had by no means been finally drawn by the court's refusal to review.

Nevertheless, the gag rule in Baltimore was dead. And the Supreme Court had, in effect, upheld the right of a free press over what the Baltimore judges considered the rights of an individual.