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

As a result of the Globe decision, federal courts have found many instances in which the public has the right to know about various aspects of the criminal justice system. Courts have affirmed public access to the examination of jurors, preliminary hearings, hearings to suppress, plea hearings, change of venue hearings, and documents submitted at hearings. The public has somewhat less access to proceedings that involve minors and to information about ongoing criminal investigations.

However, in the wake of the 1991 rape trial of William Kennedy Smith, in which the media publicized the name of Smith's alleged rape victim, Alaska, Louisiana, and New York all passed laws making it a crime to publicly disclose the identities of sex-crime victims. The focus of these laws has not been to restrict the press, but rather to cut off public access to identifying information in police and trial records.