The Supreme Court: Free Speech & Self-lncrimination

• Share

In two key cases last week, the Supreme Court again raised the Bill of Rights as a shield against state power:

> By a vote of 5 to 2, the court ruled that federal courts may now enjoin criminal prosecutions (but only before indictments) under vaguely worded state laws that have a "chilling effect" on the "transcendent" First Amendment right of free speech. Under a 1962 anti-subversive law, Louisiana had charged three white civil rights officials with failing to register as Communist-fronters. The defendants claimed that the sweeping law was actually being used to deny free speech and curb integration. A federal court refused to intervene under the long-held "abstention" doctrine, which requires that a state court get first crack at the issues. Agreeing with the defendants, the Supreme Court voided the key provisions of Louisiana's law as unconstitutionally vague and held that federal abstention is no longer required in similar First Amendment cases—a victory for civil libertarians all over the country.

> By 6 to 2, the court ruled that state prosecutors can no longer comment to jurors on the failure of criminal defendants to take the stand. Eddie D. Griffin, who remained mute during his trial for a 1961 rape-murder in Los Angeles, had a previous rape-robbery record going back to 1944. Had he testified, the D.A. could have raked up every detail. Griffin was convicted nonetheless after the D.A. pointedly noted his silence, a practice permissible in six states, including California. In decisions dating to 1908, the Supreme Court had refused to bar such comment in state courts (federal courts have barred it since 1893). But last year the court extended the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination to all state courts (Malloy v. Hogan), a step inevitably pointing to Griffin's victory. As a result, the U.S. Constitution now guarantees what 44 states have already established on their own. As for Eddie Griffin, he faces retrial in California with no comment on his silence. Whether the new right will help him remains to be seen.