Court Opinion

ID: 9422886
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:05:03.081058+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:30.712082
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Goldberg,
concurring.
I agree with the Court that there is “no difficulty in bringing the appellant’s statement within the purview of criticism of the official conduct of public officials . . . .” Ante, at 76. In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, 297, I expressed my conviction “that the Constitution accords citizens and press an unconditional freedom to criticize official conduct.” Id., at 305. New York Times was a civil libel case; this is a criminal libel prosecution. In my view, “ [i] f the rule that libel on government has.no place in our Constitution is to have real meaning, then libel [criminal or civil] on the official conduct of the governors likewise can have no place in our Constitution.” Id., at 299.