Oklahoma Pub. Co. v. District Court, 430 U.S. 308 (1977)

Oklahoma Publishing Co. v. District Court

in and for Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
No. 76-867

Decided March 7, 1977
430 U.S. 308

ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO

THE SUPREME COURT OF OKLAHOMA

Syllabus

A state court’s pretrial order enjoining the news media from publishing the name or photograph of an 11-year-old boy in connection with a pending juvenile proceeding charging the boy with delinquency by second-degree murder held to abridge the freedom of the press in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539; Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U.S. 469. These Amendments will not permit a state court to prohibit the publication of widely disseminated information obtained at court proceedings that were, in fact, open to the public. Here, notwithstanding that a state statute provided for closed juvenile hearings unless specifically opened to the public by court order, it appears that whether or not the presiding judge made such an order, members of the press were in fact present at the boy’s detention hearing with full knowledge of, and without objection by, the judge, the prosecutor, and defense counsel, and there is no evidence that petitioner newspaper publisher acquired the boy’s name and photograph unlawfully, or even without the State’s implicit approval.

Certiorari granted; 555 P.2d 1286, reversed.