The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-12-17
ON THE
CAPITALS CUFF
By HENRY ION

One of the notable free speech de
cisions to be handed down by the
supreme court in recent years was
penned recently by Mr.. Justice Black
in the contempt Of court cases against
Harry Bridges and the Los Angeles
| Times
Bridges was accused of having pub
| lished a telegram in which he de-
scribed judges decision as Outrage
GUS" and likely to provoke a strike
of longshoremen on the west coast.
The Times offense consisted of three
editorials concerning matters pending
before the court.
Both Bridges and The Times were
convicted under laws of the state of
California.
Blacks opinion begins by discussing
the amount of evil that is caused by
expressions of opinion and declares
that the courts previous declarations
that "clear and present danger" must
be shown to exist lead to a working
principle that the substantive evil
must be extremely serious and the
degree of imminence extremely high
before utterances can be punished"
"These cases." Black said, edo not
purpose to mark the furthermost con-
stitutional boundaries of protected ex-
preston nor do we here. They do
no more than recognize a minimum
compulsion of the bill of rights.
For the first amendment does not
speak equivocally. 1t prohibits any
law abridging the freedom of speech
or of the press 1t must be taken
as a command of the broadcast scope
that explicit language, read in the
context of liberty-loving society, will
allow"
Black then takes up the contention
that the power of judges to punish
out-of-court utterances was deeply
rooted in English law at the time our
constitution was adopted.
"To assume" Black says, "that
English common law in this field be-
came ours is to deny the generally
accepted historical belief that 'one of
the objects of the Revolution was to
get rid of the English common law on
liberty of speech and of the press"
Debate at the time of the adoption
Of our constitution is cited and it is
noted that James Madison, one of the |
leaders in the framing of the first |
pointed out that the Mag
IA Charta docs not contain any one |
provision for the security of those
lights respecting which the people of
America are alarmed"
The decision then proceeds to dis
JUS how the contempt decisions would
fleet, as a practical matter, liberty of
1T must be recognized that public
interest is much more likely to be
,1ndled by a controversial event of
he day than by generalization, how
yer penetrating, of the historian or
cientist.
Since they punish utterances made
Turing the tendency of a case, the
Judgments below therefore produce
heir restrictive results at the precise
ime the public interest in the mat
ers discussed would naturally be at
Is height.
Moreover, the ban is likely to fall
OF only at a crucial time but upon
he most important topics of discus
ion. Here, for example, labor contro-
arcilo Nf /
he publications. Experience shows {
hat the more acute labor controyer- |
les are, the more likely it is that in
ome aspect they will get into court. t
1T is therefore the controversies S
lat command most interest that the
ecisions below would remove from I
lie arena of public discussion q
1t would follow as a practical re-
lit of the decisions below that any a
ne who might wish to give public L
ipression to his views on a pending t
Use involving no matter what prob r
m of public interest, just at the time t
s audience would be most receptive. C
ould be as effectively discouraged as o
deliberate statutory scheme of t
had been adopted" S
Indeed, Black goes on, legislation
inning free speech would be less in 1
rious for it would give the speaker fl
publisher a guide as to what he O.
uld say instead of being compelled
act "at the peril that judges might il
i'd in the utterance a reasonable W
ndency' to obstruct justice in al
nding case. CT
Justice Frankfurter and others dis IL
nted.