Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court for the County of Norfolk

Brennan was sympathetic with the wish to protect young victims of sex crimes from further trauma. But he said that a law more "narrowly tailored" was needed. "Although the right of access to criminal trials is of constitutional stature, it is not absolute," he wrote. "But the circumstances under which the press and public can be barred from a criminal trial are limited; the State's justification in denying access must be a weighty one."

Although Brennan did not spell out how to decide which trials should be closed, he did offer the following factors to consider:

. . . the minor victim's age, psychological maturity and understanding, the nature of the crime, the desires of the victim, and the interests of parents and relatives.

For example, Brennan wrote, some minors might not mind testifying with reporters in the courtroom, therefore there would be no reason why the public should be denied access to their trials. Some minors might even want the public to know "what a heinous crime the defendant had committed." Yet the broadly written Massachusetts law would close these trials as well as those in which minors had a genuine wish for privacy.