# In the Matter of Roche

> Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · October 15, 1980 · 381 Mass. 624

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9736228

## Case

- **Full name:** In the Matter of Walter F. Roche, Jr.
- **Court:** Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
- **Decided:** October 15, 1980
- **Citations:** 381 Mass. 624; 411 N.E.2d 466; 6 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2121; 1980 Mass. LEXIS 1343
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Quirico
- **Judges:** Hennessey, Quirico, Wilkins, Liacos, Abrams
- **Cited by:** 46 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9736228

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- finding a qualified protection in the First Amendment for the “general right . . . to gather information and prepare it for expression”
- finding a qualified protection in the First Amendment for the “general right ... to gather information and prepare it for expression”

## Opinion text

Quirico, J.
(with whom Liacos, J., joins, concurring in the result and the reasoning in support thereof, but not in the concluding dictum of the opinion). I concur with the result reached by the court in its opinion and with all of the reasoning in support of that result. In short, I concur with the opinion to the end of the second part thereof entitled “Discovery supervision claim.”
*641 I do not believe that the concluding part of the opinion entitled “Common law considerations” is essential to the decision of this case, and therefore consider it dictum. While I agree with the general statements therein about the continuing development of the common law, I do not join that part of the dictum which appears to be a current commitment to a future recognition of a common law equivalent of a so called press “shield” law. That is a subject on which regulation has been sought from the Legislature without success to date. I believe that judicial action or commitment on the subject should await a decision directly involving an issue thereon.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9736228. Public record. Not legal advice.