Notes that despite recent United States Supreme Court decisions that have been unfavorable to the press, a First Amendment-based conditional privilege protecting the editorial process against governmental intrusion survives. (FL)

Discusses cases in which trial court judges imposed restrictive orders (gag orders) on the press, other methods of inhibiting reporters' access to judicial information, and American Bar Association guidelines for applying due process to gag rules and orders. (GW)

Questions concerning the relative protection afforded by the speech and press clauses of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the law of libel, and protection for the editorial process are the focus of this paper. The first section summarizes arguments for First Amendment press protection, focusing on the question of whether…

Reports that the Supreme Court has dealt with related issues, but not specifically with rights of prison presses. (FL)

Notes that although it has been cited in numerous cases, state and federal courts have been reluctant to adopt the neutral reporting doctrine since its announcement in 1977. (FL)

If the United States Supreme Court is to exercise its historic role as guardian of the fundamental freedoms flowing from the speech and press clauses of the first amendment, it is imperative that those basic freedoms be placed in a preferred position. The preferred position doctrine provides adequate safeguards for both speech and press guarantees…

Presents a brief overview of both the common law and constitutional privileges protecting the expression of opinion. Notes that, although the case of "Ollman v. Evans" provides a four-factor test to make the fact-opinion distinction, ambiguity is still evident in many cases. (MM)

Details the implications for libel suits against the press of the law's distinction between public figures and private individuals. (KS)

Since the "New York Times Co. v. Sullivan" decision in 1964, courts have debated the degrees of protection from defamation that should be offered to individuals and the concomitant degree of freedom that the press should have to report on matters of public concern. Most recently, the Supreme Court has attempted to balance these competing…

The ultimate test of the speech-action dichotomy, as it relates to symbolic speech to be considered by the courts, may be the fasting of prison inmates who use hunger strikes to protest the conditions of their confinement or to make political statements. While hunger strikes have been utilized by prisoners for years as a means of protest, it was…