Court Opinion

ID: 9427153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:53.775694+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:05.247492
License: Public Domain

Me. Justice Stewaet,
concurring in the judgment.
Virginia has enacted a law making it a criminal offense for “any person” to divulge confidential information about proceedings before its Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission. I cannot agree with the Court that this Virginia law violates the Constitution.
There could hardly be a higher governmental interest than a State’s interest in the quality of its judiciary. Virginia’s derivative interest in maintaining the confidentiality of the proceedings of its Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission seems equally clear. Only such confidentiality, the State has *849determined, will protect upright judges from unjustified harm and at the same time insure the full and fearless airing in Commission proceedings of every complaint of judicial misconduct. I find nothing in the Constitution to prevent Virginia from punishing those who violate this confidentiality. Cf. In re Sawyer, 360 U. S. 622, 646 (opinion concurring in result).
But in this case Virginia has extended its law to punish a newspaper, and that it cannot constitutionally do. If the constitutional protection of a free press means anything, it means that government cannot take it upon itself to decide what a newspaper may and may not publish. Though government may deny access to information and punish its theft, government may not prohibit or punish the publication of that information once it falls into the hands of the press, unless the need for secrecy is manifestly overwhelming.*
It is on this ground that I concur in the judgment of the Court.

 National defense is the most obvious justification for government restrictions on publication. Even then, distinctions must be drawn between prior restraints and subsequent penalties. See, e. g., New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U. S. 713, 733-737 (White, J., concurring); Near v. Minnesota ex rel. Olson, 283 U. S. 697, 716.