Commentary: The Limited Utility of the First Amendment as a Means of Securing Access by the Press and the Public to Proceedings in Criminal Cases

The author examines the models proposed in Gannett Co. v. DePasquale to provide constitutional protection of a public interest in access to judicial proceedings without impairing the interest of the defendant in a fair trial. Whether based on the first amendment or the sixth amendment, a constitutional approach requiring an immediate and delicate balancing of those interests by the trial court would be, in the author's view, unsatisfactory and unworkable. In the alternative, he suggests that legislative rather than judicial balancing may provide a more practical solution.