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33 Fed. Comm. L.J. 39 (1981)
Judge David Bazelon: Making the First Amendment Work

handle is hein.journals/fedcom33 and id is 47 raw text is: Judge David Bazelon: Making the First Amendment Work Stuart N. Brotman* INTRODUCTION In an age when many judges, particularly the Justices of the United States Supreme Court, are being sharply criticized for decisions that limit the First Amendment protection ac- corded journalists,' Senior Judge David Bazelon of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) remains a steadfast and outspoken judicial ad- vocate for making the First Amendment work.2 In particular, * B.S., Northwestern; M.A., Wisconsin; J.D., California (Berkeley); President, Communication Strategies Incorporated; Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, National Telecommunications and Information Adminstration, 1978-81; Member, State Bar of California. 1. See, e.g., Ashdown, Media Reporting and Privacy Claims: Decline in Consti- tutional Protection for the Press, 66 KY. L.J. 759 (1977-78); Denniston, Without a Champion, THE QUILL, Sept. 1978, at 23-26; Comment, Defamation and the First Amendment in the 1978 Term: Diminishing Protectionfor the Media, 48 U. CIN. L. REv. 1027 (1979); Note, Communications Law. The Decline of Press Privilege, 19 WASHBURN L.J. 54 (1979); Goodale, Open Justice: The Threat of Gannett, COMM. AND THE LAW, (Winter 1979); Cairney, Sunlight in the County Jail: Houchins v. KQED, Inc. and Constitutional Protection for Newsgathering, 6 HASTINGS CONST. L.Q. 933 (1979); Note, First and Fourth Amendments Do Not Prohibit Use of Search Warrants Against Newspapers, 53 TULANE L. REv. 1513 (1979). Among the cases that have attracted adverse criticism are Gannett v. De Pasquale, 443 U.S. 368 (1979); Herbert v. Lando, 441 U.S. 153 (1979); Houchins v. KQED, Inc., 438 U.S. 1 (1977); and Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, 436 U.S. 547 (1977), reh. denied, 439 U.S. 885 (1979). This criticism, in turn, has led to an unprecedented series of public explana- tions of these and other First Amendment cases by several Justices of the Supreme Court. See, e.g., Brennan, Address, 32 RUTGERS L. REv. 173 (1979); Justices Speak Out on Press, THE NEWS MEDIA & THE LAW, Nov.-Dec. 1979, at 5-6. 2. Senior Judge Bazelon, of course, was Chief Judge Bazelon from 1962 to 1978. In June, 1979, after thirty years of active service on the D.C. Circuit, he as- sumed Senior Judge status. His vital participation in the court's business since then, however, demonstrates that the change in designation should not be interpreted as a sign of retirement.

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