‘The Post’ renews attention for Pentagon Papers ruling

NEW YORK (AP) — Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated “The Post” has revived interest in the newspaper battles of the 1970s, the lives of The

Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham and executive Ben Bradlee, and the risks of publishing the top-secret documents known as “The Pentagon Papers.”

It also brought attention, however brief, to one of the country’s signature First Amendment rulings: The New York Times Co. vs. United States was a 6-3 decision in 1971 rejecting the Nixon administration’s argument that releasing the Pentagon Papers endangered national security.

Much of the movie focuses on The Washington Post’s decision to publish the papers after a federal court injunction against The New York Times, which broke the story.

The ruling serves as the victorious climax to the press’s battle against the government. And nearly a half-century later, the decision remains a major landmark in the history of freedom of the press.

“The decision powerfully reaffirms that even the most important government interests (such as national security) generally can’t justify suppressing factual reporting, and courts have repeatedly cited it for that proposition,” Eugene Volokh, a professor of law at UCLA and a former Supreme Court clerk, said.

“The decision also makes clear that courts generally aren’t allowed to issue injunctions restraining speech,” he added.

The Pentagon Papers came out during a relatively liberal period in the court, although it was becoming more conservative since the departure of Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1969. Warren Burger, who succeeded Warren, was a Nixon appointee determined to roll back the alleged excesses of the Warren court.

The Pentagon Papers were commissioned by the defense department in 1967 to provide a history of the country’s involvement in Vietnam. One of the contributors, Daniel Ellsberg, had become disillusioned with the war and saw the study as a chance to show how the public had been deceived for years by the government.

Ellsberg leaked what became known as the Pentagon Papers to the Times, which published its first report on June 13, 1971.