New York Times Vs US
Storyboard Text
- In early 1971, Robert McNamra commissioned a secret government study of American involvement in Vietnam. When completed there were 47 volumes containing over 7,000 pages. The work was labeled classified, and only 15 copies were made. In early 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a RAND Corporation employee who also worked on the project, secretly made copies of the documents and passed them on to reporters at New York Times.
- From July 26-30, Times and the United States went to court to try to debate and battle to see who had the rights to publish. The United States forgot about the prior restraint laws, which suppresses the government of material that would be published.
- The Nixon administration, citing national security concerns, obtained a restraining order barring further publication of the Papers.
- 6-3 decision in the court, they decided that the restraining order would go away and allowed New York Times to continue with publication. The court tied this in with 3 different cases and stated, “any system of prior restraints comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity” and “ The government thus carries a heavy burden of showing justification for the imposition of such a restraint.” But in this court case, the government has failed to carry that burden.
- court rules that the first amendment overrides the federal government’s interest in keeping certain documents enclosed.
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