The Difficult Task of Model Rule of Professional Conduct 3.6: Balancing the Free Speech Rights of Lawyers, the Sixth Amendment Rights of Criminal Defendants, and Society's Right to the Fair Administration of Justice

This article will begin with a review of trial publicity rules from the earliest efforts to curb harmful statements of lawyers during trials to the promulgation of Model Rule 3.6 in 1983 by the American Bar Association. It will then examine Gentile, the main Supreme Court case in this area. The article will next consider the 1994 and 2002 amendments to Model Rule 3.6, which were inspired in part by the Court's ruling in Gentile. It will also look specifically at the trial publicity situation in North Carolina, where Durham District Attorney Michael B. Nifong has been charged with violating the relevant state trial publicity rule, as an example of a state rule virtually identical to Model Rule 3.6 in action.

Finally, the article will offer critical comments on the Gentile decision and the current version of Model Rule 3.6.