Word: tornillo
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...they face the momentous confrontation between the President and the Watergate prosecutors, the Justices last week handed down rulings in half a dozen important cases. All of them involved the First Amendment right of free expression. The nation's press may well be most deeply affected by the Tornillo decision sharply limiting citizens' right of reply to critical editorials (see cover story page...
...Tornillo v. Miami Herald [April 29]: I am amazed that the basic right to reply in case of offensive or inaccurate newspaper reports is being questioned in the U.S. In Colombia, a 1944 law gives all citizens (not only political candidates) the right to have a reply published within three days. If the paper does not comply, the citizen may resort to a special judicial procedure in which the judge decides in 48 hours...
...Tornillo lost both the election and his first court battle. After hearing the Florida attorney general say that he would not defend the state law, the Bade County circuit court dismissed Tornillo's complaint. But last summer the state supreme court ruled 6-1 that the lower court had erred. The majority opinion stated that "to assure fairness in campaigns, the assailed candidate has to be provided an equivalent opportunity to respond; otherwise, not only would the candidate be hurt, but also the people would be deprived of both sides of the controversy." The Herald appealed...
Legal Guarantee. Tornillo's case has been handled by Jerome Barron, a George Washington University law professor. He has argued for years that freedom of expression is slipping away from ordinary people because newspaper competition has disappeared in many places, and few citizens can afford to buy time on radio or TV. Barron thinks that the First Amendment should be broadened to meet these conditions and give dissident voices a legal guarantee of access to the public. The Florida right-to-reply law, he insists, "adds to debate, adds to content and in no way subtracts from expression...
...comments and questions from the U.S. Supreme Court Justices last week were any guide, the Barron argument will be rebuffed. Chief Justice Warren Burger asked rhetorically: "If Tornillo goes out and hires a hall to castigate the Miami Herald, should the newspaper get half his time?" Justice Harry Blackmun remarked that the First Amendment was designed to protect press freedom, not to compel full debate on all issues: that is, a free press has a right to take stands that some people might consider unfair...