Patterson v. Superior Court of California

Background

Two California reporters and their newspaper’s managing editor published articles in January 1975 that referred to testimony from a Fresno County grand jury. A local state-court judge had ordered the grand jury transcript sealed. The judge opened an investigation to find possible violations of the sealing order, called numerous witnesses, and included the reporters and editor among those witnesses. The applicants say they were excluded from the courtroom during other witnesses’ testimony and that their lawyer was prevented from cross-examining those witnesses.

Reasoning

When the applicants were called, they refused to answer questions about how they obtained the sealed transcript and asserted various state and federal privileges. The judge rejected those privilege claims and found the applicants in contempt on multiple occasions, although the record does not show whether formal sanctions were imposed. The applicants asked state appellate courts for extraordinary relief and plan to seek review by the Supreme Court, saying their rights to confrontation and a fair, impartial hearing are being and will be violated. The Justice noted that intervention in a state proceeding is rare but found these facts echo past cases identifying serious constitutional problems, so relief was needed to avoid irreparable harm.

Real world impact

To prevent possible, irreparable deprivation of constitutional rights, the Justice entered an order staying further proceedings against these applicants and referred their emergency application to the full Court. That stay pauses the state-court investigation and any further contempt actions against these reporters and their editor while the Supreme Court considers the matter, but it is not a final decision on the underlying claims.