Earl Warren

“ No witnesses were presented at the hearing and no evidence was introduced to show that the publications resulted in any actual interference or obstruction of the court or the work of the grand jury. The gravamen of the contempt citation, and of the State's case against the petitioner, was that the mere publishing of the news release and defense statement constituted a contempt of court, and in and of itself was a clear and present danger to the administration of justice. ”

“ The Court does not suggest that Georgia was attempting to use the mantle of judicial proceedings in order to insulate the transaction of nonjudicial business from criticism; investigation is a traditional function of the grand jury. I see no reason why the State cannot determine for itself what shall and what shall not be considered by grand jurors in conducting any of their traditional tasks. ”

“ For here a panel of judges, themselves elected officers and charged under state law with the responsibility of instructing a grand jury to investigate political corruption, have exercised the contempt power to hold in contempt another elected representative of the people for publishing views honestly held and contrary to those contained in the charge. And, an effort by the petitioner to prove the truth of his allegations was rejected, the court holding irrelevant the truth or falsity of the facts and opinions expressed in the publications. ”

“ Thus clarifying the exercise of this judicial power in the context of the protections assured by the First Amendment, the Court held that out-of-court publications were to be governed by the clear and present danger standard, described as 'a working principle that the substantive evil must be extremely serious and the degree of imminence extremely high before utterances can be punished.' Id., at 263, 62 S.Ct. ”

“ This problem is important not only to an individual or some isolated group or to individual litigants in a particular lawsuit, but affects the entire Nation. When the grand jury is performing its investigatory function into a general problem area, without specific regard to indicating a particular individual, society's interest is best served by a thorough and extensive investigation, and a greater degree of disinterestedness and impartiality is assured by allowing free expenssion of contrary opinion. ”

“ Men are entitled to speak as they please on matters vital to them; errors in judgment or unsubstantiated opinions may be exposed, of course, but not through punishment for contempt for the expression. ”

“ Historically, this body has been regarded as a primary security to the innocent against hasty, malicious and oppressive persecution; it serves the invaluable function in our society of standing between the accuser and the accused, whether the latter be an individual, minority group, or other, to determine whether a charge is founded upon reason or was dictated by an intimidating power or by malice and personal ill will. ”

“ Particularly in matters of local political corruption and investigations is it important that freedom of communication be kept open and that the real issues not become obscured to the grand jury. It cannot effectively operate in a vacuum. It has been said that the 'ancestors of our 'grand jurors' are from the first neither exactly accusers, nor exactly witnesses ”

“ The Court's functions are exhausted once it is determined that federal constitutional standards have been met. It is of course not incumbent on the state courts to deal in detail with the facts of this Court's earlier decisions in order to 'display an awareness of the standards enunciated in those cases,' or to make 'elaborate findings' to demonstrate 'how the publications interfered with the grand jury's investigation.' 370 U.S., pp. ”

“ Finally, we are told by the respondent that, because the petitioner is sheriff of Bibb County and thereby owes a special duty and responsibility to the court and its judges, his right to freedom of expression must be more severely curtailed than that of an average citizen. ”

“ This conclusion, based on the repetition of a number of petitioner's previous statements and the allegation that they were true, [23] was clearly justified.
Finally, petitioner's case is not saved by the fact that both he and the judges he attacked are elected officials, or by the fact that the statement concerned an issue of some plitical moment. There was ample opportunity to bring the judges' performance to the voters after the investigation was closed. 'Political interest' cannot be used as an excuse for affecting the result of a judicial inquiry. ”

“ However, simple justice would demand that the Judge not single out the negro people for particular investigation. * * *
'Negro people will find little difference in principle between attempted intimidation of their people by judicial summons and inquiry and attempted intimidation by physical demonstration such as used by the K.K.K.
'It is hoped that the present Grand Jury will not let its high office be a party to any political attempt to intimidate the negro people in this community. ”

“ Of equal if not greater importance is the fact that petitioner's statements were calculated to influence, not a judge chosen because of his independence, integrity, and courage and trained by experience and the discipline of law to deal only with evidence properly before him, but a grand jury of laymen chosen to serve for a limited term from the general population of Bibb County. It cannot be assumed with grand jurors, as it has been with judges, Craig v. ”

“ And so it is that this Court has uniformly upheld the power of courts to protect themselves by citations for contempt from improper influence upon proceedings before them. Sustaining this power against a claim of freedom of speech in Patterson v. Colorado, supra, 205 U.S., at 463, 27 S.Ct. at 558, 51 L.Ed. 879, Mr. Justice Holmes wrote: 'When a case is finished courts are subject to the same criticism as other people ”