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

At first glance, it might be hard to understand why Brennan was so concerned with keeping trials open to the public, especially in cases where it might make people who had already suffered feel even more uncomfortable. But Brennan's arguments were based on the belief that the public must know what goes on at trials if it is to understand how the government works and what the government is doing. He wrote:

Underlying the First Amendment right of access to criminal trials is the common understanding that "a major purpose" of that Amendment was to protect the free discussion of governmental affairs. By offering such protection, the First Amendment serves to ensure that the individual citizen can effectively participate in and contribute to our republican system of self-government. Thus to the extent that the First Amendment embraces a right of access to criminal trials, it is to ensure that this constitutionally protected "discussion of governmental affairs" is an informed one.

Of course, the First Amendment does not explicitly say that the press has the right to attend criminal trials. But, Justice Brennan wrote, the First Amendment guarantees not just the rights it actually lists, but also those rights that are necessary to exercise the rights that it lists. For people to meaningfully exercise their First Amendment right to political speech, they have to know what their government is doing. To know what their government is doing, they have to read about it in a free press. Therefore, press coverage of governmental activities--including trials--is guaranteed by the First Amendment, and the state needs a "compelling reason" to limit that guarantee.