Final Flashcards
Legal problems often arise when the ________ and the _______________ _____________ system intersect.
press; criminal justice
The quasi-news reporting of crime and the criminal justice system is at the heart of a long-standing matter that journalists and lawyers alike call the _______ _________ - ___________ ___________ controversy.
free press-fair trial
Trial level remedies for pretrial publicity:
- voir dire
- change of venue
- change of veniremen
- continuance
- admonition
- sequestration
The process where each prospective juror is questioned prior to being impaneled in an effort to discover bias is called:
voir dire
The court can, in order to impanel a jury of citizens who know much less about the case, move the trial to the second community. This change of location of a trial is called a ___________________________.
change of venue
When a continuance is granted, the trial is _______________.
delayed
The members of an impaneled jury are instructed by the judge to render their verdict in the case solely on the basis of the evidence preseented in the courtroom. Judges say they believe most jurors take _____________ quite seriously.
admonition
Describe sequestration of the jury:
Separating the jury from the community during a trial. Usually a jury is lodged at a hotel and members are required to eat together. In general, sequestration means to keep jurors away from other people. Exposure to news reports is also screened to shield jurors from information about the trial.
The Nebraska Press Association test for restrictive orders aimed at the press.
- There must be intense and pervasive publicity about the press.
- No other alternative measure might mitigate the effects of the pretrial publicity.
- The restrictive order will in fact effectively prevent prejudicial publicity from reaching potential jurors.
While the law regarding restrictive orderrs aimed at the press is generally clear and has evolved swiftly since 1976, the law regarding ____________ _________ barring participants from speaking or publishing about a case is ______ ____________ and is still developing.
restrictive orders; less distinct
Once a jury has completed its work and is dismisssed by the judge, the _______ becomes considerably ______________.
law; murkier
To determine whether the proceeding or document is presumptively open or not, the judge must ask a couple of questions:
- Whether this kind of hearing (or document, if access to a court record is involved) has traditionally and historically been open to the press and public
- Whether public and press access to this hearing will play a positive role in the functioning of the judicial press.
Press-Enterprise test for the closure of presumptively open judicial proceedings and documents:
- The party seeking closure (either the defendant or the government, although sometimes it is both) must advance an overriding interest that is likely to be harmed if the proceeding or document is open.
- Whoever seeks the closure must demonstrate that there is a “substantial probability” that this interest will be harmed if the proceeding or document remains open.
- The trial court must consider reasonable alternatives to closure.
- If the judge decides that closure is the only reasonable solution, the closure must be narrowly tailored to restrict no more access than is absolutely necessary.
- The trial court must make adequate findings and put them into the record to support the closure decision.
Traditionally, judicial hearings involving _____________ have been closed to the public.
juveniles
The Supreme Court has ruled that it is permissible for a state to attempt to ______________ the victim of a sexual assault by permitting the _____________ of a trial during the victim’s ________________.
protect; closing; testimony
Press and public access to _______________ courts is generally open under both ________________ _______ and the First Amendment.
military; military law
Since 1986 American courts have ___________ that a wide range of _______________ _________________ are presumptively open to the press and public.
ruled; judicial proceedings
Evidence that is introduced in open court is generally ________________.
accessible
Public and press access to court documents related to out-of-court settlements is routinely _____________.
denied
Tips for reproters when judicial hearing is closed:
- Call the editor immediately to get a lawyer on the job.
- Make a formal objection to closure.
- Ask the judge to delay the closure until the lawyer arrives.
In 1976, ___________ and other recording equipment were barred from courtrooms in all but _______ states. Today such equipment is ______________ in at least some courtrooms in all 50 states.
cameras; two; permitted
Cell phones, laptops, tweets, and texts: What about their use by others in the courtroom? ______________, _______________, ________________? These legal questions are just beginning to be asked and unfortunately, many of the answers are tentative.
Reporters, bloggers, spectators
Which Supreme Court case made it clear that sexually explicit speech called “obscenity” is not protected by the First Amendment freedoms of free speech and press?
Roth v. United States
What did the 1973 Miller v. California case do?
The 1973 Miller v. California case allowed for the articulation of a new test for speech that is obscene – the Miller test
A narrow class of material defined by the Supreme Court in the Miller test, material that is obscene is not protected by the First Amendment. Obscene material is sometimes referred to as hard-core pornography.
obscenity
material that may be sexually graphic; often referred to as adult material or sexually explicit material. This material is protected under the First Amendment. However, such material may be barred in works available to children (variable obscenity laws) and in over-the-air (as opposed to cable or satellite-generated) radio and television broadcasts.
indecent material
This term has no legal significance but is often used by laypeopl and politicians to describe anything from real obscenity to material such as a passionate love scene that is simply offensive to the viewer. The overuse (and misuse) of this imprecise term adds more confusion to an already muddled legal landscape.
pornography
The most comprehensive federal statute adopted during the 19th century became law in __________. Known as the Comstock Act because of the intense pressure applied on Congress by Anthony Comstock, the law declared that all ___________ _________, pamphlets, pictures, and other materials were __________.
1873; obscene books; nonmailable
Does the Comstock law, as amended, remain the federal law today?
Yes
In Miller, for the first time since __________, a majority of Supreme court reached agreement on a definition of obscenity.
1957
The Miller Test standards:
- An average person, applying contemporary local community standards finds that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to a prurient interest in sex.
- The work depicts in a patently offensive way sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law.
- The work in question lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
____________ _____________ has been defined by courts to mean a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion.
Prurient interest
State laws are supposed to ___________ that kinds of material or conduct that are _______________ as obscene.
define; prohibited
To be obscene a work must lack ________ ____________, _________, political or scientific value.
serious literary, artistic
The production, distribution and possession of ________ pornography is not protected by the First Amendment.
child
Another issue regarding child ___________________ involves minors who create their own ______________ ________________ and then post the images on online social networks or trade them via cell phones, the latter process known as “sexting,” in other words, what happens when a ____________ is a child pornographer?
pornography; sexual content; child
Some ________________ scholars assert that sexually explicit content subordinates women to men, objectifies and exploits women as sex objects for men’s pleasure and leads to violence.
feminist
As the Supreme Court narrowed its definition of legal obscenity during the past _____ years, more and moer pressure has been applied by ____________ groups and even some _________________ agencies to stop the flow of nonobscene, adult material that would probably have been considered __________ obscene half a century ago, but it is protected by the First Amendment today.
50; advocacy; government; legally
Beginning in 1996 Congress passed a series of three federal statutes designed to control what Americans could see on the Internet. They are:
1996 Communications Decency Act
1998 Child Online Protection Act
2001 Children’s Internet Protection Act
_____________________ is an area of the law that deals with intangible property – property that a person cannot touch or hold or lock away for safekeeping.
intellectual property law
