Source: http://openjurist.org/494/us/624
Timestamp: 2015-11-29 01:42:44
Document Index: 168188390

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 905', '§ 905', '§ 905', 'art, 467', '§ 905', '§ 905']

494 US 624 Butterworth v. Smith | OpenJurist
494 U.S. 624 - Butterworth v. Smith Homethe United States Reports494 U.S.
494 US 624 Butterworth v. Smith 494 U.S. 624
110 S.Ct. 1376
108 L.Ed.2d 572
Robert A. BUTTERWORTH, Jr., Attorney General of Florida, et al., Petitionersv.Michael SMITH.
When respondent Smith, a reporter, testified before a state grand jury about alleged improprieties committed by certain public officials, he was warned that if he revealed his testimony in any manner, he would be subject to criminal prosecution under Fla.Stat. § 905.27, which prohibits, inter alia, a witness from ever disclosing testimony given before a grand jury. After the grand jury terminated its investigation, Smith—who wanted to write about the investigation's subject matter, including, inter alia, his grand jury testimony—filed suit in Federal District Court, seeking a declaration that § 905.27 was an unconstitutional abridgment of speech, and an injunction preventing the State from prosecuting him. The court granted summary judgment to the State, but the Court of Appeals reversed. It held that § 905.27 is unconstitutional to the extent that it applies to witnesses who speak about their own testimony after the grand jury investigation is terminated.
(a) To determine the validity of Florida's ban, the State's interests in preserving the confidentiality of its grand jury proceedings must be balanced against Smith's asserted First Amendment rights. See Landmark Communications Inc. v. Virginia, 435 U.S. 829, 838, 98 S.Ct. 1535, 1541, 56 L.Ed.2d 1. Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, 467 U.S. 20, 104 S.Ct. 2199, 81 L.Ed.2d 17 which held that a protective order prohibiting a newspaper from publishing information which it had obtained through discovery procedures did not offend the First Amendment—does not govern the validity of Florida's ban, since the instant case deals with divulging information that was in a witness' possession before he testified before the grand jury, not information he may have obtained from his participation in those proceedings. State officials may not constitutionally punish publication of lawfully obtained truthful information about a matter of public importance absent a need to further a state interest of the highest order. Pp. 629-632.
"(2) It is unlawful for any person knowingly to publish, broadcast, disclose, divulge, or communicate to any other person, or knowingly to cause or permit to be published, broadcast, disclosed, divulged, or communicated to any other person, in any manner whatsoever, any testimony of a witness examined before the grand jury, or the content, gist, or import thereof, except when such testimony is or has been disclosed in a court proceeding." Fla.Stat. § 905.27 (1989).1 After the grand jury terminated its investigation, respondent set out to publish a news story—and perhaps a book—about the subject matter of the investigation, a publication which would include respondent's testimony and experiences in dealing with the grand jury. He sued in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, seeking a declaration that § 905.27 was an unconstitutional abridgment of speech, and an injunction preventing the State from prosecuting him. The District Court g