| Trials involving celebrities or particularly gruesome crimes are considered high-profile cases because of the media attention that follows such cases. With so much publicity, it becomes a challenge to guarantee a person's constitutional right to a fair trial.
Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Press
In the United States, the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The government may not prohibit the press from attending judicial proceedings and informing the public about them. Further, the First Amendment does not permit a prior restraint on publication by the press of information it possesses.
What is a gag order?
A "gag order" is a pretrial order by the court, which prohibits the trial participants from talking to the media. Gag orders may be imposed in both civil and criminal cases.
What does a gag order do?
A court may impose a gag order to limit contact with the media by the parties and attorneys in cases being heard by the court. Although gag orders infringe on First Amendment rights, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld their use to control publicity before and during a trial. Gag orders are permitted if media publicity is likely to materially prejudice a party or if it will be difficult to guarantee a fair trial without a gag order. Judges justify gag orders as necessary to assure a fair trial and to prevent sensational publicity from tainting the jury.
Gag orders have been imposed on jurors to prohibit comments to the press about jury deliberations or about other jurors' comments during deliberations. At least one federal appellate court has struck down a prohibition on juror contact with the media after trial. However, the court upheld restrictions on the juror's ability to discuss other jurors' comments during deliberation. In another case, a gag order imposed on jurors in a trial that ended with a hung jury was upheld to prevent tainting the jury for the retrial. Copyright 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. |