New York Times v. United States

New York Times v. United States
by the Supreme Court of the United States
Syllabus

New York Times v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971), was a United States Supreme Court per curiam decision. The ruling made it possible for the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers to publish the then-classified Pentagon Papers without risk of government censure. The Times case featured a constitutional crisis in which the U.S. President Richard Nixon had claimed executive authority to force the prominent newspaper to suspend publication of classified information in its possession. The question before the court was if the constitutional freedom of the press under the First Amendment was subordinate to a claimed Executive need to maintain the secrecy of information. The Supreme Court ruled that First Amendment did protect the New York Times' right to print said materials.— Excerpted from New York Times v. United States on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Court Documents

Per Curiam Opinion of the Court

Concurring Opinions: Black; Douglas; Brennan; Stewart; White; Marshall

Dissenting Opinions: Burger; Harlan; Blackmun

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 403 U.S. 713 New York Times v. United States CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT No. 1873 Argued: June 26, 1971 --- Decided: June 30, 1971 [*]

The United States, which brought these actions to enjoin publication in the New York Times and in the Washington Post of certain classified material, has not met the "heavy burden of showing justification for the enforcement of such a [prior] restraint."