{
  "title": "Incidents: prior restraint in the United States, outcome reversed",
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  "filters": {
    "country": "US",
    "tactic": "prior_restraint",
    "outcome": "reversed"
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  "sort": "date",
  "count": 2,
  "page": 1,
  "pages": 1,
  "per_page": 50,
  "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.",
  "facets": {
    "country": [
      {
        "value": "US",
        "label": "United States",
        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 64,
          "of": 180,
          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
          "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
        }
      }
    ],
    "continent": [
      {
        "value": "north-america",
        "label": "North America"
      }
    ],
    "tactic": [
      {
        "value": "prior_restraint",
        "label": "Prior restraint",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "label": "Secrets and espionage laws",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "stage": [
      {
        "value": "silence",
        "label": "Silence",
        "count": 2
      }
    ],
    "level": [
      {
        "value": "national",
        "label": "National",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "state_or_province",
        "label": "State or province",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "outcome": [
      {
        "value": "reversed",
        "label": "Reversed",
        "count": 2
      }
    ],
    "leader": [
      {
        "value": "richard-nixon",
        "label": "Richard Nixon"
      },
      {
        "value": "theodore-christianson",
        "label": "Theodore Christianson"
      }
    ],
    "era": [
      {
        "value": "1970s",
        "label": "1970s",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "1920s",
        "label": "1920s",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "year": [
      {
        "value": "1927",
        "label": "1927",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "1971",
        "label": "1971",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "has_case": [
      {
        "value": "0",
        "label": "without a court case",
        "count": 2
      }
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  "results": [
    {
      "slug": "1971-us-pentagon-papers-injunction",
      "title": "United States government seeks an injunction to stop The New York Times publishing the Pentagon Papers",
      "occurred_on": "1971-06-15",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint",
      "tactics": [
        "prior_restraint",
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "richard-nixon",
      "leader_name": "Richard Nixon",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The Pentagon Papers documented decades of internal government decision-making on the Vietnam War that contradicted public statements by several administrations, and the Nixon administration sought to prevent further disclosure of the classified history.",
      "outcome": "reversed",
      "outcome_on": "1971-06-30",
      "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that the government's request for an injunction against publication failed to overcome the heavy presumption against prior restraint.",
      "stage": "silence",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "1970s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "After The New York Times began publishing a leaked secret history of the Vietnam War, the Nixon administration obtained a court order stopping further publication, the first such order against a major American newspaper. The Supreme Court lifted it two weeks later, ruling the government had not justified blocking publication in advance.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1971-us-pentagon-papers-injunction"
    },
    {
      "slug": "1931-us-near-v-minnesota-gag-law",
      "title": "United States Supreme Court strikes down a Minnesota law used to shut a newspaper",
      "occurred_on": "1927-01-01",
      "occurred_on_precision": "year",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US-MN",
      "level": "state_or_province",
      "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint",
      "tactics": [
        "prior_restraint"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "theodore-christianson",
      "leader_name": "Theodore Christianson",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The Saturday Press had run articles accusing Minneapolis officials, police and a local gangster of corruption and racketeering, allegations the county attorney treated as scandalous and defamatory under the state's 1925 nuisance law.",
      "outcome": "reversed",
      "outcome_on": "1931-06-01",
      "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court of the United States struck down the Minnesota law 5 to 4 as a restraint on publication in advance that the Constitution did not allow.",
      "stage": "silence",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "1920s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "A Hennepin County attorney used Minnesota's 1925 Public Nuisance Law to shut down The Saturday Press, a Minneapolis paper accusing officials of corruption. In 1931 the Supreme Court of the United States struck the law down, ruling that stopping a paper before publication was itself a form of press controls.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1931-us-near-v-minnesota-gag-law"
    }
  ],
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  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
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}