The Press: Decision Reversed

When the Atlanta Constitution (circ. 171,500) ran a fact-packed series on sloppy state traffic enforcement, Superior Court Judge Horace E. Nichols took out after the paper. He demanded that the paper print the evidence he submitted to prove that the series was wrong. Constitution Editor Ralph McGill refused. Highhanded Judge Nichols forthwith cited McGill and Managing Editor William Fields for contempt of court, fined them each $200 and sentenced them to 20 days in jail (TIME, May 12). Last week, in what the Constitution called “a historic decision,” Georgia’s supreme court unanimously overruled Judge Nichols’ decision.

Said Supreme Court Chief Justice W. H. (for William Henry) Duckworth: the “records justify every conclusion stated [in the paper’s series] . . . [There are] no grounds whatever to sustain a conviction for contempt . . . The judge was utterly without power to require or compel publication . . . without pay [of the proof] he requested them to publish . . . If a worthy judge may employ contempt-of-court process to silence unjust criticism . . . then this same rule would enable an unworthy judge to silence the press in just criticism . . .”