Page "United States v. The Progressive" Paragraph 14

Prior restraint has generally been regarded by U. S. courts, particularly the U. S. Supreme Court, as being " the most serious and least tolerable " of restrictions on the First Amendment.

William Blackstone, in his Commentaries defined freedom of the press as " laying no previous restraints upon publication, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published.

" However the Supreme Court had never held that prior restraint is unconstitutional.

On the contrary, in Near v. Minnesota 283 U. S. 697 ( 1931 ), Chief Justice Charles E. Hughes remarked that in wartime, " no one would question but that a government might prevent actual obstruction to its recruiting service or the publication of the sailing dates of transports or the number and location of troops.

" He further suggested that obscenity or incitement to insurrection would be similar grounds for prior restraint.

The court subsequently upheld restrictions on demonstrations in Cox v. New Hampshire, 312 U. S. 569 ( 1941 ), and censorship of motion pictures in Times Film Corp. v. City of Chicago, 365 U. S. 43 ( 1961 ).