Near v. Minnesota
| Near v. Minnesota | |
|---|---|
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| Argued January 30, 1930 Decided June 1, 1931 |
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| Full case name | J. M. Near v. Minnesota, ex rel. Floyd B. Olson, County Attorney, Hennepin County, Minnesota |
| Citations | 283 U.S. 697 (more)
51 S. Ct. 625; 75 L. Ed. 1357; 1931 U.S. LEXIS 175; 1 Media L. Rep. 1001
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| Prior history | Temporary injunction granted, 11-27-27; defendants' demurrer denied, State ex rel. Olson v. Guilford, Hennepin County District Court; affirmed, 219 N.W. 770 (Minn. 1928); judgment and injunction for plaintiffs, Hennepin County District Court; affirmed, 228 N.W. 326 (Minn. 1929) |
| Subsequent history | None |
| Holding | |
| A Minnesota law that imposed permanent injunctions against the publication of newspapers with "malicious, scandalous, and defamatory" content violated the First Amendment, as applied to the states by the Fourteenth. Minnesota Supreme Court reversed. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Hughes, joined by Holmes, Brandeis, Stone, Roberts |
| Dissent | Butler, joined by Van Devanter, McReynolds, Sutherland |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amends. I, XIV; Minn. Stat. §§ 10123-1 to 10123-3 (1925) | |
Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931), was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that recognized the freedom of the press by roundly rejecting prior restraints on publication, a principle that was applied to free speech generally in subsequent jurisprudence. The Court ruled that a Minnesota law that targeted publishers of "malicious" or "scandalous" newspapers violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (as applied through the Fourteenth Amendment). Legal scholar and columnist Anthony Lewis called Near the Court's "first great press case".
It was later a key precedent in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), in which the Court ruled against the Nixon administration's attempt to enjoin publication of the Pentagon Papers.
In 1927, J. M. Near, who has been described as "anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-black, and anti-labor" began publishing The Saturday Press in Minneapolis with Howard A. Guilford, a former mayoral candidate who had been convicted of criminal libel.
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