Word: tornillo
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...current case resulted from two Miami Herald editorials in September 1972. Both acidly criticized Pat L. Tornillo Jr., a teachers' union executive and then a candidate in a legislative primary."We cannot say it would be illegal", the Herald advised, "but certainly it would be inexcusable of the voters if they sent Pat Tornillo to Tallahassee." Tornillo twice appeared at Herald offices with rebuttals and asked that the paper print them or risk violation of Florida's 1913 right-to-reply statute. Herald editors refused...
...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...