New York Times Co. v. United States: Pentagon Papers and Free Press

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the landmark Supreme Court case, New York Times Co. v. United States, which centered on the publication of the Pentagon Papers. The report examines the context of the Vietnam War, the government's attempts to impose prior restraint, and the core constitutional question of whether the First Amendment guarantees absolute freedom of the press, even in matters of national security. The analysis delves into the arguments presented by both the New York Times and the United States government, including the balance between freedom of the press and the protection of national security. It highlights the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of the New York Times, emphasizing the importance of an informed citizenry and the court's stance against government censorship. The report also explores the impact of the case on future legal precedents, solidifying the principle of a 'heavy presumption against prior restraint' and its implications for freedom of the press in the United States.

Running head: NEW YORK TIMES CO. V UNITED STATES
New York Times Co. v United States
Name of the student:
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1NEW YORK TIMES CO. V UNITED STATES
Abstract
The case of United States vs New York Times is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court
of the United States on the issue of First Amendment. The ruling favoured the publishing
house to publish the then classified file namely the Pentagon paper and ruled out any
possibility of government censorship or penalty in the future. President Richard Nixon had
enforced executive authority over the publication and forced the publication to suspend
publishing the Pentagon Papers. The court was faced with a question of whether the First
Amendment guarantees absolute freedom of the press and whether this was a question of
national security. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Press to print the materials.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Quality of Information:..............................................................................................................3
Support of thesis:........................................................................................................................4
Development of thesis:...............................................................................................................4
Discussion..................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Work Cited.................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The American constitution and the American Culture shape the Supreme court of the
united states of America. The paper focuses on analyzation of the “Pentagon Paper” case, the
milestone of the Supreme court to defend the First Amendment right and restrict prior
restraint of the government was genuinely significant. The following structure of the paper
will discuss the circumstances that lead to the case and the situation of the American culture
during that time. The paper will address the constitutional question and present the stance of
both the parties involved, and in the later section, the paper will shed light on the judgement.
The last section will explain the importance of the case. New York Times Co. v United
States is a seminal victory for the freedom of the press in the united states of America.
Quality of Information:
The American citizen was apprehensive about the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam
war by late 1960s and beginning of the 1970s. An analyst named Daniel Ellsberg in 1970
leaked prime suspect about the U.S. intervention in the Vietnam war (Beckley). The
documents were called pentagon paper, and it showed president Lyndon Johnson has
deceived the Congress and American population about the military involvement and the
extent of intervention I southeast Asia. The first chapter of the pentagon paper was published
in the New York times the following year. Richard Nixon, who was the present president,
issued a federal injunction against new York times and the Washington post immediately to
stop the publishing house from printing the next batch. The government argued that printing
those paper and bringing the issue in the public eye can hamper state security. In June 1971
the case finally reached the Supreme Court (Bean). During that time, the Supreme Court used
to rule in favour of the government and ruled that the government is allowed to restrict a
speech that poses a danger to national security. The case of Schenck vs United states in 1919

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was a great example (Alexander). However, the new York times case was significant as the
federal want to stop publication of a document and not to look for legal penalties after the
publication. This was a case of “prior restrain” or the government censorship beforehand.
Thesis statement
The research will focus analyzing the “Pentagon Paper” case in the light of the initiative
taken by the Supreme court while defending the First Amendment right.
Support of thesis:
The constitutional question arises during that time that whether the freedom which
was provided by the first amendment was absolute. The second most important question was
whether national security is essential or the freedom of the press (Usher). The third question
was whether the publication of the paper was posing a threat to national security. The new
York times argued that the first amendment of the constitution protects the freedom of the
press, and in that favour, they can publish those document (Post and Shanor). They further
argued that the national defence must be protected by informing the population of America
not hiding matter of utter importance and keeping them blindfolded therefore freedom of the
press must be ensured to keep them informed. The most important argument was that the
state has unable to prove how the publication of the pentagon paper would pose a threat to
national security. The united states gave the counter-argument as they state that the first
amendment does not ensure absolute freedom and especially in the case of national security
(Hindman and Thomas). Secondly, the Court should strike a balance between the right of the
press and the duty of the government to safeguard national security. If this publication is
published, this will cause dangerous consequences in terms of national security.

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Development of thesis:
The Court ruled in favour of the new York right and allowed them to publish the
pentagon papers as the Supreme Court held the government of the united states failed to
justify its stance. Justice Black said an essential part of the U.S democracy is to protect the
freedom of the press. He further argued that the freedom of the press is guaranteed as so the
press can serve the people and censure the government rightfully (Miletzki and Broten). The
first amendment ensures that people have access to the right information without any bias.
Justice Douglas, in his concurrence, stated that the point of government regarding the secrecy
is undemocratic and the motive of the government was to hide the relevant information
surrounding the public debate. In Justice Steward concurrence it was asserted that the
publication would be varied for instance if the publication will cause immediate, direct and
irreparable damage to the United States or the people of the U.S the verdict would be
different in that case. However, Justice White specified that if the information is sensitive to
cause of national security, it will not avert the press from exercising the first amendment right
(Cole). Chief Justice argued in his dissent that the first amendment is not the last thing
regarding all the cases. There is a particular exception which will be debated in the future in
the Court.
I choose to analyze this case as I think this is a landmark case in the history of
freedom of press. Freedom of the press, in my opinion, is very significant as the press
informs the people about the public affair and monitor the movements of the government.
There is an urgent need to protect our right and in order to protect our right it necessary to
understand our right and the press ensure that. This case is influential as the decision of the
Court reinforced the stance of the Court against the concept of prior restraint and this case
serve as a reference for future cases. For instance 2000 spring, the district court of texas
passed a judgement that restricted the Associated Press(A.P.) to publish a story that revolved

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around guaranteed loan by the state government to a Texas shrimp farm. Lawyers cited the
New York case statement, and the judge lifted the order after hearings. This case established
the “heavy presumption against prior restraint” in cases of national security as well, which
means they found the censorship of the press unconstitutional.
Discussion
The Supreme Court of the united states of America has time and again disagreed on
the limits of the put on the freedom of speech and expression of the press (Fishkin and
Forbath). The Court faced this issue in the year 1971 when the new york times approached
the Court. The newspaper had gained a copy of the pentagon paper which was an internal
defence report that gave an overview of the deception of the government during the Vietnam
war (Appy). This paper surfaced when the citizens of America were segregated on their
opinion of U.S. involvement during the war. The new York times appealed to the Court under
the umbrella of the First Amendment.
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the supreme ruling in the
New York Times Co. v United States proved to be an influential judgement. The case as
evident from the discussion was between the government of U.S. and the New York times
regarding prior restrainment of the publication of the Pentagon Paper. The paper contained
information about the extent of the U.S involvement in the Vietnam War. The government
moved to Court in the name of the national security while the New York times defended their
stance on the basis of freedom of the press as mentioned in Amendment One. The Court ruled
in favour of the New York Times. The ruling of the Court to uphold the freedom of the press
turns to have a dramatic effect on the nation as a whole.

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Work Cited
Alexander, Larry. "Inciting, Requesting, Provoking, or Persuading Others to Commit Crimes:
The Legacy of Schenck and Abrams in Free Speech Jurisprudence." SMUL Rev. 72 (2019):
389.
Appy, Christian G. American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity.
Penguin Books, 2015.
Bean, Hamilton. "US national security culture: From queer psychopathology to queer
citizenship." QED: a journal in GLBTQ worldmaking 1.1 (2014): 52-79.
Beckley, Michael. "The myth of entangling alliances: Reassessing the security risks of US
defense pacts." International Security 39.4 (2015): 7-48.
Cole, David. "The Three Leakers and what to do about them." The New York Review of
Books 6 (2014).
Fishkin, Joseph, and William E. Forbath. "The anti-oligarchy constitution." BUL Rev. 94
(2014): 669.
Hindman, Elizabeth Blanks, and Ryan J. Thomas. "When old and new media collide: The
case of WikiLeaks." New Media & Society 16.4 (2014): 541-558.
Miletzki, Janna, and Nick Broten. Development as freedom. Macat Library, 2017.
Post, Robert, and Amanda Shanor. "Adam Smith's First Amendment." Harv. L. Rev. F. 128
(2014): 165.
Usher, Nikki. Making News at The New York Times. University of Michigan Press, 2014.