First Amendment and the Freedom of Information Act Essay

First Amendment and the Freedom of Information Act - Essay ExampleThe closing decade of the twentieth century was witness to the feel broadcast of every detail of the O.J. Simpson murder trial, giving millions of viewers, not just in the United States, but across the world, access to the entirety of the courtroom legal proceeding (Cohn and Dow, 2002). As Hernandez (1996) reports, proponents of the practice maintain that the televising of courtroom proceedings does not just give the public access to the workings of their judicial system but allows them to handle the government, as it is their right to do. Opponents, however, quite rightly maintain that the practice, however, conflicts with both the defendants right to privacy and his/her expectations of a fair trial (Hernandez, 1996).The argument in favor of cameras in courtrooms is predicated on the Constitution, the First Amendment and theoretical function of the media as watchdog. Both the Freedom of Information Act and the Firs t Amendment clearly explicate the publics right to know, implying, as N. Hentoff (2000) argues, the constitutionality of have it away coverage of court trials. According to this perspective, the constitutionality of cameras in the courtrooms stems from the fact that the U.S.