concluding that criminal trials are presumptively public and noting that “ ‘[wjithout publicity, all other checks are insufficient: in comparison of publicity, all other checks are of small account.... [Wjhatever other institutions might present themselves in the character of checks, would be found to operate rather as cloaks than checks; as cloaks in reality, as checks only in appearance.’ 1 J. Bentham, Rationale of Judicial Evidence 524 (1827).” 10 (Footnote in original, renumbered)
How later courts described this case
- concluding that criminal trials are presumptively public and noting that “ ‘[wjithout publicity, all other checks are insufficient: in comparison of publicity, all other checks are of small account.... [Wjhatever other institutions might present themselves in the character of checks, would be found to operate rather as cloaks than checks; as cloaks in reality, as checks only in appearance.’ 1 J. Bentham, Rationale of Judicial Evidence 524 (1827).” 10 (Footnote in original, renumbered)
- stating that `the presumption of public trials is, of course, not at all incompatible with reasonable restrictions imposed upon courtroom behavior in the interest of decorum,' including the exclusion of the public and the press from conferences at the bench and in chambers where such conferences are distinct from trial proceedings
- finding that the “right to attend criminal trials is implicit in the guarantees of the First Amendment,” and that “without the freedom to attend such trials, which people have exercised for centuries, important aspects of freedom of speech and of the press could be eviscerated”
- holding that the presumption of public access “applies to documents filed in connection with criminal proceedings”
Written by the judges who cited it.
Distinguished
Distinguished by State ex rel. Plain Dealer Publishing Co. v. City of Cleveland, 106 Ohio St. 3d 70 (2005)
{¶ 66} And although both the Plain Dealer and the Vindicator cite Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (1980), 448 U.S. 555, 100 S.Ct. 2814, 65 L.Ed.2d 973, in support of their constitutional claim, that case is inapplicable.
The opinion
Mr. Justice White,
concurring.
This ease would have been unnecessary had Gannett Co. v. DePasquale, 443 U. S. 368 (1979), construed the Sixth *582 Amendment to forbid excluding the public from criminal proceedings except in narrowly defined circumstances. But the Court there rejected the submission of four of us to this effect, thus requiring that the First Amendment issue involved here be addressed. On this issue, I concur in the opinion of The Chief Justice.