NEW YORK TIMES CO. Et Al. v. JASCALEVICH

Background

Myron Farber, a reporter for the New York Times, and the newspaper company were ordered by a New Jersey trial judge to produce documents for the judge’s private review in a murder trial. Farber was jailed until he complied, and the newspaper faced a $5,000 daily fine. Both were also found guilty of criminal contempt, though the state appellate court stayed the criminal contempt while leaving the civil contempt order in place. The New Jersey Supreme Court refused to stay the civil contempt judgment, and appeals remained pending when this emergency stay application reached Justice White.

Reasoning

Justice White considered whether he or the Court could enter a stay while the state appeals were unresolved and whether reporters have a constitutional right to refuse subpoenas for such documents. He noted there is no existing Supreme Court authority that gives newsmen a blanket privilege to withhold subpoenaed materials and cited earlier cases addressing related questions. The trial judge had certified that the materials appeared necessary and material to the defense after extensive trial proceedings and ordered in-camera inspection. Given that record, Justice White found the preconditions for enforcing the subpoena met and concluded that in-camera review would not cause irreparable harm to the claimed but undecided First Amendment rights.

Real world impact

Because Justice White denied the stay, the state court could proceed with private inspection of the materials and continue to enforce civil contempt sanctions while appeals proceed in the New Jersey courts. The decision does not finally resolve the constitutional issues and does not mean the reporter’s defenses are rejected on the merits; it allows the state trial process and the pending appeals to continue without an immediate halt from this Court.