What did the Supreme Court say in New York Times Co. v. United States (the Pentagon Papers case)?

0:04The basic facts are the Pentagon papers was a classified study that showed the origins and backgrounds of the Vietnam War. Again, a major political controversy. The papers showed that the government had engaged in a lot of lying, and offscating to the American public about the reasons for and the justifications, for and and the progress of the war. The papers were leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, who had originally been very supportive of the Vietnam War.

0:39Interestingly enough, became the more he learned, the more he observed, the more of an opponent he became. He leaked these documents to the New York Times and the Washington Post, which began to publish them. The Nixon administration immediately went to court to seek an injunction against the continued publication. The court says by a six to three vote, that, no, that injunction preventing the ongoing publication would be a very serious first amendment violation. There were three dissenters. The three dissenters said there would be serious harm to national security if this material is published. Interestingly enough, several members of the majority who said the government may not stop the publication, said, there will be some adverse impact on national security, and yet they nonetheless voted to prevent the so called prior restraint.

1:43That's the legal term that's used when government stops dissemination of information, and it has traditionally been considered one of the most serious violations of the concept of free speech. But the justices who said, look, there may be some adverse impact on the war effort or the effort to end the war through negotiations, said, look, our national security does not consist only of the battlefield. Our national security consists in preserving our democracy.

2:18That really depends on freedom of the press and the right of the people to have information about government policies. We're going to be disenfranchised from actually wielding our sovereign power if we're deprived of basic information that underpins these important policy decisions. In fact, especially important when you're talking about something as consequential as war, where we're sending all young men and women from our own country and killing people, including civilians in other countries, it becomes especially important for us to have access to that information. Absolutely critically important for democratic principles, as well as free speech principles.