Court Opinion

ID: 9427311
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:20:22.92744+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:06.101080
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stewart,
concurring in the judgment.
I agree that the preliminary injunction issued against the petitioner was unwarranted, and therefore concur in the judgment. In my view, however, KQED was entitled to injunctive relief of more limited scope.
The First and Fourteenth Amendments do not guarantee the public a right of access to information generated or controlled by government, nor do they guarantee the press any basic right of access superior to that of the public generally. The Constitution does no more than assure the public and the press equal access once government has opened its doors.* Accordingly, I agree substantially with what the opinion of The Chief Justice has to say on that score.
We part company, however, in applying these abstractions to the facts of this case. Whereas he appears to view “equal access” as meaning access that is identical in all respects, I believe that the concept of equal access must be accorded more flexibility in order to accommodate the practical distinctions between the press and the general public.
*17When on assignment, a journalist does not tour a jail simply for his own edification. He is there to gather information to be passed on to others, and his mission is protected by the Constitution for very specific reasons, “Enlightened choice by an informed citizenry is the basic ideal upon which an open society is premised Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U. S. 665, 726 (dissenting opinion). Our society depends heavily on the press for that enlightenment. Though not without its lapses, the press “has been a mighty catalyst in awakening public interest in governmental affairs, exposing corruption among public officers and employees and generally informing the citizenry of public events and occurrences . . . Estes v. Texas, 381 U. S. 532, 539. See Mills v. Alabama, 384 U. S. 214, 219; Grosjean v. American Press Co., 297 U. S. 233, 250.
That the First Amendment speaks separately of freedom of speech and freedom of the press is no constitutional accident, but an acknowledgment of the critical role played by the press in American society. The Constitution requires sensitivity to that role, and to the special needs of the press in performing it effectively. A person touring Santa Rita jail can grasp its reality with his own eyes and ears. But if a television reporter is to convey the jail’s sights and sounds to those who cannot personally visit the place, he must use cameras and sound equipment. In short, terms of access that are reasonably imposed on individual members of the public may, if they impede effective reporting without sufficient justification, be unreasonable as applied to journalists who are there to convey to the general public what the visitors see.
Under these principles, KQED was clearly entitled to some form of preliminary injunctive relief. At the time of the District Court’s decision, members of the public were permitted to visit most parts of the Santa Rita jail, and the First and Fourteenth Amendments required the Sheriff to give members of the press effective access to the same areas. The Sheriff evidently assumed that he could fulfill this obligation simply *18by allowing reporters to sign up for tours on the same terms as the public. I think he was mistaken in this assumption, as a matter of constitutional law.
The District Court found that the press required access to the jail on a more flexible and frequent basis than scheduled monthly tours if it was to keep the public informed. By leaving the “specific methods of implementing such a policy . . . [to] Sheriff Houehins,” the court concluded that thé press could be allowed access to the jail “at reasonable times and hours” without causing undue disruption. The District Court also found that the media required cameras and recording equipment for effective presentation to the viewing public of the conditions at the jail seen by individual visitors, and that their use could be kept consistent with institutional needs. These elements of the court’s order were both sanctioned by the Constitution and amply supported by the record.
In two respects, however, the District Court’s preliminary injunction was overbroad. It ordered the Sheriff to permit reporters into the Little Greystone facility and it required him to let them interview randomly encountered inmates. In both these respects, the injunction gave the press access to areas and sources of information from which persons on the public tours had been excluded, and thus enlarged the scope of what the Sheriff and Supervisors had opened to public view. The District Court erred in concluding that the First and Fourteenth Amendments compelled this broader access for the press.
Because the preliminary injunction exceeded the requirements of the Constitution in these respects, I agree that the judgment of the Court of Appeals affirming the District Court’s order must be reversed. But I would not foreclose the possibility of further relief for KQED on remand. In my view, the availability and scope of future permanent injunctive relief must depend upon the extent of access then permitted the public, and the decree must be framed to accommodate *19equitably the constitutional role of the press and the institutional requirements of the jail.

 Forces and factors other than the Constitution must determine what government-held data are to be made available to the public. See, e. g., New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U. S. 713, 728-730 (concurring opinion).