THE PRESS, THE COURTS, AND THE REGULATION OF PREJUDICIAL PUBLICITY: A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF ATTEMPTS TO BALANCE FIRST AMENDMENT AND SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS

This legal-historical study traces the development of the use of the "gas order" by the American court system in an effort to prevent any type of prejudicial publicity which could effect the Sixth Amendment rights of a criminal defendant to a fair trial by an impartial jury. While the study examines some of the early free press/fair trial cases, it concentrates on those which followed Sheppard v. Maxwell, with particular attention given to Dickinson v. United States, Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart, Gannett Co., Inc. v. DePasquale and Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia. Through the examination of these cases and more than 250 others the author shows that the Supreme Court of the United States' handling of this type of case has been marked by a great deal of inconsistency. In this area the Court has chosen to apply a series of ill-defined, vaguely worded, tests which have created far more problems than they have solved. The author thus concludes that the Court has not spoken loudly or clearly enough to bring about any kind of a solution to the free press/fair trial controversy.