NBC Nightly News open - 1979-07-02

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (YouTube automatic captions)

[0:02] This is NBC Nightly News.

[0:05] With David Brinkley on vacation, John

[0:07] Chancellor in New York and tonight's

[0:08] special segment Ghostwriters.

[0:12] Good evening from the new quarters for

[0:14] NBC Nightly News on the air. We have

[0:16] more space as you can see. We'll be able

[0:18] to use our maps and our monitors the

[0:20] better to cover the news and we like the

[0:22] new colors. We hope you do too.

[0:24] And the news begins tonight with the

[0:26] Supreme Court in a decision which

[0:28] worries journalists all across the

[0:29] country. The court ruled five to four

[0:32] that judges, if they defended degrees,

[0:34] can keep the press and the public out of

[0:36] pre-trial hearings. The court said

[0:38] closing pre-trial hearings could be used

[0:40] to guarantee that an impartial jury can

[0:42] be selected later. Today's ruling could

[0:45] close off press coverage of a great deal

[0:47] of American justice. About 90% of

[0:49] criminal cases never get to trial and

[0:52] are settled often in plea bargaining in

[0:53] pre-trial hearings. Those can now be

[0:56] more easily turned into private

[0:57] proceedings. Here's more from Carl

[0:59] Stern.

[1:02] The case was brought by the Gannett

[1:03] newspaper in Rochester, New York. Its

[1:06] reporters were barred from a pre-trial

[1:08] court proceeding in the murder of a town

[1:10] policeman.

[1:11] County Judge Daniel D. Pasquale ruled

[1:13] that he could close the proceedings to

[1:15] prevent prejudicial publicity.

[1:18] Today, that ruling led to one

[1:19] unprecedented in American law.

[1:22] The Supreme Court went far beyond the

[1:24] facts of the New York case to rule

[1:26] broadly that the press and public have

[1:28] no constitutional right to attend

[1:30] trials.

[1:31] Justice Stewart said the Sixth Amendment

[1:33] guarantee of a public trial is for the

[1:35] benefit of the defendant alone and he or

[1:38] she can keep out the press and public if

[1:40] the judge and prosecutor agree.

[1:43] The press reacted with dismay. For

[1:45] example, Jack Landau of the Reporters

[1:47] Committee for Freedom of the Press.

[1:49] I think that the court has developed a

[1:52] mentality

[1:54] that justice in this country is a

[1:56] private affair between judges,

[1:58] prosecutors and defendants and is not

[2:00] the affair of the public.

[2:03] And I think there may be some resentment

[2:05] at the Supreme Court level at some of

[2:07] the things the press has been doing

[2:08] about reporting on I just I don't know.

[2:10] I I I don't know but certainly there's

[2:12] an enormous amount of hostility at the

[2:14] court right now. In a postscript to

[2:16] today's ruling, Justice Powell warned he

[2:18] might change his vote in the future if

[2:20] judges close trials for no good reason.

[2:23] But Justice Rehnquist replied Powell

[2:25] still wouldn't get the five votes he

[2:27] needs to change today's decision.

[2:30] Carl Stern, NBC News at the Supreme

[2:32] Court.

[2:33] The court also came down hard today in

[2:36] support for school desegregation plans

[2:38] ordered by federal judges in cases

[2:40] involving desegregation and bussing in

[2:42] Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, in Louisville

[2:45] and Minneapolis, in Austin, Texas. The

[2:47] court strengthened the power of federal

[2:49] judges to order desegregation plans.

[2:52] Today's actions will have an effect on

[2:53] millions of children all across the

[2:55] country. The two decisions which will

[2:57] put the most children in buses are the

[2:59] Ohio decisions on school systems in

[3:01] Dayton and Columbus. Here again, Carl

[3:04] Stern.

[3:06] About a third of Dayton students are

[3:08] being bussed and more than a third faced

[3:10] bussing in Columbus.

[3:11] Schools in Ohio hadn't been officially

[3:13] segregated since 1888 but most Dayton

[3:16] and Columbus schools are mainly black or

[3:19] white and the question was whether

[3:20] school officials were responsible for

[3:22] that. So much so as to justify citywide

[3:25] bussing.

[3:27] Today, the court said yes in a way that

[3:29] ended hopes of anti-bussing forces that

[3:31] the court might narrow bussing orders

[3:33] now affecting more than two and a half

[3:35] million children nationally.

[3:37] Justice White, speaking for the court,

[3:38] said bussing was required where school

[3:40] boards had failed to meet their

[3:42] affirmative duty to see that pupil

[3:44] assignment and school construction

[3:46] policies did not perpetuate a system of

[3:48] separate black and white schools.

[3:51] At the Justice Department, government

[3:52] civil rights chief Drew Days said the

[3:54] decision means there will be bussing in

[3:56] several more cities. Well, I would I

[3:58] would assume that in the Minneapolis

[4:01] case and in the Austin case,

[4:03] there would be

[4:05] some need for quick

[4:07] action to carry out the

[4:10] desegregation principles.

[4:12] Days indicated bussing may now be in

[4:14] store for at least 10 other cities which

[4:16] he would not identify except to say they

[4:19] are in the north and west.

[4:21] For reaction in Ohio, here's NBC News

[4:23] correspondent Fred Briggs.