The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-05-13
CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOM

United States and the constitution of Alabama. The two rights are as closely entwined as two vines that spiral each other from root to branch. | You cannot chop at one without cut ting both. Whatever abridges the freedom of the press abridges also the freedom of speech of every citizen within the Jurisdiction of that abridg ment. And the constitutions, botf state and national, declare that sucf freedom may not be abridged The | question, therefore, is not an academic one as regards the newspapers right to publish, but a direct and vital one as regards the individuals right to the expression of opinion and the re cital of facts.
 The plea of Former Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, in defense of the three newspapermen before Judge Heflin on charge of contempt for publishing facts of court record re- garding a man on trial for murder, WdS Hioot Ploloullu, oCHoldIiy dlu convincing document There is public disappointment that the judge did not see fit to submit his judgment to the view of the state supreme court, in order that there should have been no uncertainty as to whether or not it was based on sound law, or whether in fact it abridged a constitutional right.
 As to the nature of the publication to which the court objected, MT. Ba- ker said: "What they do is to print the record of this court. They print a fact that is as open to daylight as the trees I see out of the window here facts which are not only matters of record, but which are so essential and necessary to be matters and record of common knowledge that our whole fabric of civilization depends for it's integrity upon the possibility of concealment about these facts. The whole purpose of having the records of court public is that the contents of them may be known as an admonition to good conduct and self-discipline on the part of the peo- ple.'
 After quoting the supreme court of the state of South Dakota as to the presumption of innocence, in a simi- lar case of contempt, as follows: 'As this is a criminal proceeding, in con sidering the probable effect of the publication, every fair and reasonable inference consistent with the theory of defendants innocence should be indulged," Mir. Baker made this com ment: That is to say, and it is the law, that when a judge reads that in an effort to determine whether or not these young men have been guilty of quasi-criminal offense, it must be read with merciful glasses in their fa- vor; and if that article can be con- strued into an article which is not pre- judicial to the administration of jus tice, then the legal obligation is upon the court so to construe it." It would appear to the layman, also, that in conformity with this legal citation the court would be impelled to grant an appeal to a review of his decision by a higher court.
 As to the differentiation between the courts right to punish summarily and the citizens right to a fair and impartial trial, MT. Baker made dis tinction, supported by legal opinion, between one who commits a physical disturbance in the presence of the court and one who commits "a mis- demeanor, which, by the gradual pro- cess of infiltration, tends to obst1uct the courts proceedings. That is an indirect contempt, and the court reaches out according to the forms of the law, not by any summary, nasty proceeding, but with the well-dis- ciplined and trained arm of the law and brings him in, and tells him what he is brought in for" Previously, MT. Baker had pied for a definite charge against the defendants, such as he did not discover in the citation, and such as every citizen summoned to judg- ment is entitled to.
 Mr. Bakers delineation of judge ship is worthy of the reading of all citizens and of judges as well: "The courts are final; and so, while men very often are skeptical about the processes of democracy by which ex- ecutives and legislative officers are chosen, there still is among us, thank God, the tradition that when a man once goes on the bench where justice is to be administered, he becomes a priest, and every sort of proposes sion drops away from him. If he has any personal enemies, he forgets them. + he has any prejudices and prepos- sessions of any kind, they all drop away. The sanctity of his office is the only thing that remains; and the duty of the judge is rot to preserve one man at the expense of another, ,r one right at the expense of another, but to dispense justice as he sees it. D That definition of judgeship is a