Near v. Minnesota

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NEAR V. MINNESOTA

NEAR V. MINNESOTA, 283 U.S. 697 (1931), invalidated an act of the state of Minnesota that provided for the suppression of, as a public nuisance, a "malicious, scandalous, and defamatory newspaper, magazine, or other periodical." The Saturday Press of Minneapolis had been so suppressed, and the editor was perpetually enjoined from further engaging in the business. The Supreme Court declared the statute unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated freedom of the press and therefore the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The measure also went far beyond existing libel laws.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rosenberg, Norman L. Protecting the Best Men: An Interpretive History of the Law of Libel. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.

HarveyPinney/a. r.

See alsoCensorship, Press and Artistic ; Due Process of Law ; Libel .

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