Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, 436 U.S. 547 (1978), argued 17 Jan. 1978, decided 31 May 1978 by vote of 5 to 3; White for the Court, Stewart, Marshall, and Stevens in dissent, Brennan not participating. In April 1971, violence and injuries resulted when police from Palo Alto, California, confronted demonstrators at Stanford University Hospital. Subsequently, officers obtained a warrant and searched the offices of the student newspaper, which had printed a photograph of the incident. Police found no additional pictures, but in the process they read a number of confidential files.
The Stanford Daily brought civil charges against the police, contending that the search violated the
First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press and the
Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that a warrant was not appropriate for searching press offices unless a
subpoena was shown to be impractical, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. In the Supreme Court, Justice Byron
White argued that the Fourth Amendment did not provide special search provisions for press offices. He rejected the argument that the search interfered with the
Daily's sources and created a chilling atmosphere that would contribute to self‐censorship. He held that requiring a subpoena prior to authorization of a search warrant would undermine law enforcement efforts.
Justice Potter
Stewart, dissenting for himself and Justice Thurgood
Marshall, concluded that, under these circumstances, the warrant impermissibly burdened freedom of the press because it threatened physical disruption of newspaper operations and might force disclosure of confidential sources essential to news gathering. Justice John Paul
Stevens argued that the search did not meet the Fourth Amendment's standards for reasonableness because the newspaper was not itself under suspicion.
The
Zurcher ruling caused a furor in the press community and led to congressional passage of a provision in the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 limiting the use of search warrants in newsrooms where neither the organization nor its members were suspected of wrongdoing.
See also
Police Power;
Privacy;
Speech and the Press.
Carol E. Jenson
