Word: public
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Herbert vs. Lando (1979). A libel plaintiff obliged to prove actual malice because he is a public figure has the right to inquire into a reporter's state of mind. Lando's CBS lawyers had argued that such questions could chill the free exchange of ideas in the newsroom...
Hutchinson vs. Proxmire and Wolston vs. Reader's Digest Association (1979), Time Inc. vs. Firestone (1976). A scientist whose publicly funded research had been ridiculed as wasteful by a U.S. Senator, a former Government translator who had been cited for contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Soviet espionage, and a prominent Florida socialite embroiled in a highly publicized divorce were all held not to be "public figures" as libel plaintiffs. The court ruled that someone must "thrust" himself into a prominent public controversy in order to become a public figure. In effect, these decisions made...
...Such public pique is very rare among Supreme Court Justices. The court is an intensely private place that prizes its secrecy. Differences between the Justices more often show up only in their judicial opinions-and in this court's overall lack of coherence...
...confidentiality of sources to surprise newsroom searches (see LAW). Not only the press is affected. The search decision can send the cops into psychiatrists' or lawyers' offices as well. The latest court ruling that pretrial hearings and possibly trials themselves may be closed to press and public is reprehensible, among other reasons because it could lead to collusion-behind closed courtroom doors-between judges, prosecutors and defendants. This ruling more than any other shows that the conflict is not just between the courts and the press but the courts and society...
...monstrous regiment of lawyers has rarely been more resented. In a recent Harris poll about public confidence in various institutions, law firms ranked eleventh on a list of 13. Even when lawyers are miraculously transformed into judges, they do not regain total trust. In the same poll, the Supreme Court came in sixth, while TV news (somewhat surprisingly) ranked first and the press in general ranked fifth, thus nosing ahead of the august court...