Justice in Plain Sight: How a Small-Town Newspaper and Its Unlikely Lawyer Opened America's Courtrooms (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781496202017)

2024 American Legacy Book Awards Winner

Justice in Plain Sight is the story of a hometown newspaper in Riverside, California, that set out to do its job: tell readers about shocking crimes in their own backyard. But when judges slammed the courtroom door on the public, including the press, it became impossible to tell the whole story. Pinning its hopes on business lawyer Jim Ward, whom Press-Enterprise editor Tim Hays had come to know and trust, the newspaper took two cases to the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1980s. Hays was convinced that the public--including the press--needed to have these rights and needed to bear witness to justice because healing in the aftermath of a horrible crime could not occur without community catharsis. The newspaper won both cases and established First Amendment rights that significantly broadened public access to the judicial system, including the right for the public to witness jury selection and preliminary hearings.

Justice in Plain Sight is a unique story that, for the first time, details two improbable journeys to the Supreme Court in which the stakes were as high as they could possibly be (and still are): the public's trust in its own government. Purchase the audio edition.

Author: Dan Bernstein
ISBN-10: 1496202015
ISBN-13: 9781496202017
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Language: English
Published: 01/01/2019
Pages: 280
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.30h x 8.60w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2018
Foreword 12/26/2018