The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-11-26
A LEGAL SYMPOSIUM
By EvartS, IngersOli, Roger A,
Pryor and Judge Fitzgerald
On THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.
Liabilities of Reporters for Accounts of Court
Proceedings and Of Editors for Comments
upon Cases and Judicial Motives.

NEW YORK, Nov. 2J.-Accordlng TO the
instructions of the Examiner have secured
the legal opinion of four great lawyers and
jurists whose views will be read with in
terest upon so important a matter as the
liberty of the press. These gentlemen
were fully 99llive to the significance
Of the thing being considered. All of the
legal lumminaries with whom l have con-
versed while conceding the necessity of
lodging the power of a very absolute king
in the hands of court, however, have
recognized growing disposition in certain
judges, usually the most arbitrary and cor
rupt, to maintain the sanction to their evil
course by inficting punishments of great
severity when those who sought fraudulent
motives to check their corrupt practices
by exposing them to the light Of public
opinion. Therefore the interviews which
/ have obtained from Senator w. M.
Evarts, General Roger A. Pryor, Colonel
Robert G. Ingersoll and Judge James T.
Fitzgerald, OF the court of general sessions
constitute a symposium of legal opinion of
no little interest and authority. Robert
G.. IngersCli the great agnostic, was seen
Saturday afternoon at his residence, 400
Fifth avenue, and readily acceded TO the
Examiners request as follows: To the
first query:
Suppose that reporter makes report
that he, as well as others, considered i'm
partial and the court differs from him, is he
TO be punished if the court pleases ~
Answer. "1-Of course every court has
right to protect itself from interference
and from disturbance to the end that it
may discharge its duties so far as protect
ing itself is concerned. The expression of
- opinion. or making of reports, not in the
presence of the court or in way that
hinders or intercepts its business, cannot
be called cOntempts In such cases the court
can do nothing by way of arresting and
furnishing for cOntemptS. A judge has the
same remedy that private person has and
no other.
CIT is the duty of the court to guard
the rights of suitOrs TO protect their cases
from being prejudiced by false or malicious
reports of judicial proceeding, and there
NAV be cases in which false reports might
properly subject their maker to punish
ment for a contempt, but it can be no Of
Tense to make true reports and no OtfenSe
beyond a technical one to make incorrect
reports where the intention was to be cor
rect"
Second Suppose a court is
openly and VIGOROUSLY dishonest and I'M
fair, and = newspaper says so, do you think
that court has i right TO punish that edi-
tor 60
Answer-''If the court is corrupt
the editor Of the paper knowing the
fact, has not only right, but II Is his duty
10 say 50, and no such court has right to
punish him. He would be entitled TO tcs-
tify and TO show the truth of what he pub
lished and if he did this there certainly
would be no offense; he would be guilty of
having discharged q public duty. Under
the circumstances supposed, the editor
would be in the right and the court could
do nothing except to resign. Every court
ought to be able to stand the truth, and no
editor should charge Judge with dlShOn-
esty unless be had the best proof. Neither
should comments be made on 4 trial calcu
lated to prejudice the rights of either party.
l believe that no man can be entitled to
greater respect than the just judge, and
certainly no human being can be lower than
the corrupt judge. 1t is of immense i'm
portance TO as all to have an intelligent, in
dependent and honest press. No editor can
be technically guilty of an offense by pub
fishing the truth in regard to the courts"
The Examiner correspondent was also
fortunate enough to find General Roger A.
Pryor at home He replied to identically
the same queries as those addressed to MIR.
IngersOll.
I'm this state; he said, ''our civil code
OF procedure, section S, subdivision p, it
self answers your inquiry" he answered,
"as follows: publications of false or
grossly Inaccurate reports of its proceed
ings is punishable by court as criminal
contempt. The opinion of reporter as to
the accurace of his report is irrelevant;
It is the a t of accuracy alone which con-
stitutes u defense, and the defense, | am
sorry to tell you, is to be passed upon not
as in other criminal cases by an impartial
jury, but by the very judge who assumes
that his dignity has been affected by the
publication; so that in case of criminal
contempt the Judge is at once prosecutor,
nd 3r,,,t ic an al hot
should not be tolerated for q moment, for
YOU can readily see how a reporter who
does what he may think is right finds him
self 'yanked' up before Judge angered at
what he has said and without any OppOr-
tuuity to justify himself, is found guilty,
fined and sent TO jail, the only restraint
upon the judicial power being the statutory
provision l have, in my practice. seen
much in justice done from this very cause
and movement ought to be set on foot to
have the law repealed.
'With regard to the second query, the
unfortunate editor supposed by the query
gains a little, perhaps, by virtue of his very
boldness. Let US analyzc the query. BY
the court, of course, is meant the judge.
There is no other criminal contempt under
our law except as enumerated and defined
in the code, aud among criminal cOutempts
there mentioned is no. an impeachment or
charge against the chGracJerand conduct of
tue ludgt, unless SuCl lLlDcaCulltlG DC q
false or grossly Inaccurate report Of pro
ceedings of court. Judge Shafter. ! be
lieye, states the doctrine of criminal con
tempt as it existed at the common law, but
in this state contempt is purely statutory
offeuse. The question resolves itself, then,
in California into u matter of fact. Can
the code Of that state be construed as pre-
venting the press from expressing opinions
impeachiny the character of the judge
without making the proceedings of a
case a basis for such Impeachment:
hardly believe the code of California can
be so construed, as liberty OF the press IS
expressly secured by the constitution OF
the United States"
O"Questions that arise from legal point"
said Senator William M. Evarts, care Of a
statutory character, and 10 answer them
correctly one should be familiar with the
statutes of California. While the dignity
of the bench should be sustained ii is also
true that liberty of the press should not be
restrained; both are important in this land
and in this age, still, must say that that
California Judge has stated the point with
toe much severity, and hardly believe
that he would be upheld"
IeThe dignity of the bench,n said Judge
James Fitzgerald Of the court of general ses-
sions. ''should be sustained, but the press
has rights that should not be passed over;
a court should be of such a character that
it cannot be injured by the press. It is
seldom that q newspaper takes up an I'M
lust cause, and cannot remember when a
Just Judge was injured by the press. If
the actions of the bench are of such char
acter that they cannot stand the light of an
investigation by the press, l cannot see
where there will be any action for con-
tempt if the press chose to take the matter